Personification and the Feminine in Roman Philosophy

A literary approach to Roman philosophy demonstrating the relevance of gender, feminism and rhetoric to the history of the self.

Alex Dressler (Author)

9781107105966, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 August 2016

322 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.6 kg

While the central ideal of Roman philosophy exemplified by Lucretius, Cicero and Seneca appears to be the masculine values of self-sufficiency and domination, this book argues, through close attention to metaphor and figures, that the Romans also recognized, as constitutive parts of human experience, what for them were feminine concepts such as embodiment, vulnerability and dependency. Expressed especially in the personification of grammatically feminine nouns such as Nature and Philosophy 'herself', the Roman's recognition of this private 'feminine' part of himself presents a contrast with his acknowledged, public self and challenges the common philosophical narrative of the emergence of subjectivity and individuality with modernity. To meet this challenge, Alex Dressler offers both theoretical exposition and case studies, developing robust typologies of personification and personhood that will be useable for a variety of subjects beyond classics, including rhetoric, comparative literature, gender studies, political theory and the history of ideas.

Introduction
1. Love, literature, and philosophy
2. The subjects of personification and personhood
3. Mothers, sons, and metaphysics: others' agency and self-identity in the Roman stoic notion of a person
4. Girl behind the woman: Cicero and Tullia, Lucretius and the life of the body-mind
5. Embodied persons and bodies personified: the phenomenology of perspectives in Seneca, Ep. 121
6. Nature's property in On Duties 1: the feminine communism of Cicero's radical aesthetics
Conclusion: repairing the text
Editions and commentaries consulted
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Philosophy [HP], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History [HB], Humanities [H], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]