Engendering Rome
Women in Latin Epic

This study examines the role of female characters in the Roman epic poetry of Virgil, Ovid and other writers.

A. M. Keith (Author)

9780521556217, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 February 2000

162 pages
20.3 x 12.7 x 1 cm, 0.18 kg

'… until now no single author has attempted in monograph form to provide an overview of the representation of women in Latin Epic. A. M. Keith's slim but thought-provoking monograph on the role of women in Roman epic poetry, published as part of the Cambridge University Press' series on 'Roman Literature and Its Contexts', is a timely and valuable contribution to the subject … unique and important … Anyone teaching or studying Roman epic and the role of women will need to consult it in the first instance.' Comptes Rendus

Heroism has long been recognised by readers and critics of Roman epic as a central theme of the genre from Virgil and Ovid to Lucan and Statius. However the crucial role female characters play in the constitution and negotiation of the heroism on display in epic has received scant attention in the critical literature. This study represents an attempt to restore female characters to visibility in Roman epic and to examine the discursive operations that effect their marginalisation within both the genre and the critical tradition it has given rise to. The five chapters can be read either as self-contained essays or as a cumulative exploration of the gender dynamics of the Roman epic tradition. The issues addressed are of interest not just to classicists but also to students of gender studies.

1. Introduction: gender and genre
2. Epic and education: the construction of Roman masculinity
3. The ground of representation
4. Exordia pugnae: engendering war
5. Over her dead body
6. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]