Propertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64

Although previous scholarship has noted some verbal and stylistic allusions to Catullus in Propertius 1.3, the extent to which the poem offers a profound and detailed engagement with Catullus 64 has not been recognised. Through a close reading of the opening couplets, I hope to demonstrate the care,...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Robinson, M
Format: Journal article
Published: Wiley 2013
_version_ 1797078173952770048
author Robinson, M
author_facet Robinson, M
author_sort Robinson, M
collection OXFORD
description Although previous scholarship has noted some verbal and stylistic allusions to Catullus in Propertius 1.3, the extent to which the poem offers a profound and detailed engagement with Catullus 64 has not been recognised. Through a close reading of the opening couplets, I hope to demonstrate the care, artistry and sophistication with which Propertius engages with Catullus 64, as he imitates and illuminates many of its key stylistic and intertextual features. I argue that this engagement with Catullus 64 is importantly programmatic, and that Propertius 1.3, like Catullus 64, is very much concerned with narrative authority and poetic control. This concern comes to the fore in Cynthia's speech at the close of the poem, and I hope to show through further close reading how its relationship to literature and art encourages us to question Propertius's portrayal of his relationship with Cynthia at this very early stage in the corpus.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T00:28:39Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:7f03bf94-7fc5-4ef0-b8aa-098d5a31ce1d
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-07T00:28:39Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Wiley
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:7f03bf94-7fc5-4ef0-b8aa-098d5a31ce1d2022-03-26T21:14:01ZPropertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7f03bf94-7fc5-4ef0-b8aa-098d5a31ce1dSymplectic Elements at OxfordWiley2013Robinson, MAlthough previous scholarship has noted some verbal and stylistic allusions to Catullus in Propertius 1.3, the extent to which the poem offers a profound and detailed engagement with Catullus 64 has not been recognised. Through a close reading of the opening couplets, I hope to demonstrate the care, artistry and sophistication with which Propertius engages with Catullus 64, as he imitates and illuminates many of its key stylistic and intertextual features. I argue that this engagement with Catullus 64 is importantly programmatic, and that Propertius 1.3, like Catullus 64, is very much concerned with narrative authority and poetic control. This concern comes to the fore in Cynthia's speech at the close of the poem, and I hope to show through further close reading how its relationship to literature and art encourages us to question Propertius's portrayal of his relationship with Cynthia at this very early stage in the corpus.
spellingShingle Robinson, M
Propertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64
title Propertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64
title_full Propertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64
title_fullStr Propertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64
title_full_unstemmed Propertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64
title_short Propertius 1.3: Sleep, surprise, and Catullus 64
title_sort propertius 1 3 sleep surprise and catullus 64
work_keys_str_mv AT robinsonm propertius13sleepsurpriseandcatullus64