Latin Language and Latin Culture
From Ancient to Modern Times

A examination of stereotypical ideas about Latin and their effect on how Latin literature is read.

Joseph Farrell (Author)

9780521776639, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 15 February 2001

164 pages
19.7 x 13 x 1.1 cm, 0.2 kg

Latin Language and Latin Culture is a constructive and beneficial addition to our reading list. All Latin is either translated or thoroughly explained. The style is clear and unpretentious, making a pleasant read not only for literary specialists but also for those who have no use for current critical jargon. It gives both a friendly introduction to the complexities of the Latin language and an interesting overview of Latin studies. Classics Ireland II

The Latin language is popularly imagined in a number of specific ways: as a masculine language, an imperial language, a classical language, a dead language. This book considers the sources of these metaphors and analyses their effect on how Latin literature is read. It argues that these metaphors have become idées fixes not only in the popular imagination but in the formation of Latin studies as a professional discipline. By reading with and more commonly against these metaphors, the book offers a different view of Latin as a language and as a vehicle for cultural practice. The argument ranges over a variety of texts in Latin and texts about Latin produced by many different sorts of writers from antiquity to the twentieth century.

1. The nature of Latin culture
2. The poverty of our ancestral speech
3. The gender of Latin
4. The life-cycle of dead languages
5. The voices of Latin culture.

Subject Areas: Educational: Languages other than English [YQF], Educational: English language & literacy [YQC]