Strategies of Ambiguity in Ancient Literature

Description

Ambiguity in the sense of two or more possible meanings is considered to be a distinctive feature of modern art and literature. It characterizes the "open artwork" (Eco) and is generated by "disruptive tactics" (Wellershoff) and strategies to engender uncertainty. While ambiguity is seen as a "paradigm of modernity" (Bode), there is skepticism regarding its use in the pre-modern era. Older studies were dominated by the conviction that there was a lack of ambiguity in pre-modernity because, according to the rules of the "old rhetoric", ambiguity was seen as an avoidable error (vitium) and a violation of the dictate of clarity (perspicuitas). The aim of the volume is to re-examine the putative "absence of ambiguity" in the pre-modern era. Is it not possible to find clear examples of deliberately employed (intended) ambiguity in antiquity? Are the oracles and riddles, the Palinode of Stesichoros and Socrates (Phaedrus), the dissoi logoi of rhetoric, the ambiguities of the tragedies all exceptions or do they not indicate a distinct interest in the artistic use of ambiguity? The presentations of the conference, which will include scholars from various philologies, will combine a recourse to theoretical concepts of intended ambiguity with exemplary analyses from the field of pre-modern art and literature. Preface Contents List of Figures Part I: Concepts and Aesthetics of Ambiguity Modern and Ancient Concepts of Ambiguity Aristotle on Ambiguity Intended Ambiguity in Plato’s Phaedo The Ambiguity of the Unambiguous: Figures of Death in Late Medieval Literature The Modern Perspective: Ambiguity, Artistic Self-Reference, and the Autonomy of Art Part II: Playing with Linguistic Ambiguity Traversing No-Man’s Land The Ambiguity of Wisdom: Mētis in the Odyssey Borges in Alexandria? Modes of Ambiguity in Hellenistic Poetry Sympotic Sexuality: The Ambiguity of Seafood in Middle Comedy (Nausicrates fr. 1 K.-A.) Liber esto – Wordplay and Ambiguity in Petronius’ Satyrica Part III: Ambiguous Narratives Half Heroes? Ambiguity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis Ambigua Verba, Hidden Desire and Auctorial Intentionality in Some Ovidian Speeches (Met. 3.279−92; 7.810−23; 10.364−6, 440−1) The Pleasures of Ambiguity: Aristomenes’ Tale of Socrates in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses Legens. Ambiguity, Syllepsis and Allegory in Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae Part IV: Ambiguity as Argument Between Conversion and Madness: Sophisticated Ambiguity in Lucian’s Nigrinus Catullan Ambiguity Prophetic, Poetic and Political Ambiguity in Vergil Eclogue 4 Vitae aut vocis ambigua: Seneca the Younger and Ambiguity Who speaks? – Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Design of Cicero’s Dialogue Speakers Unsettling Effects and Disconcertment — Strategies of Enacting Interpretations in Tacitusʼ Annals The Latin Commentary Tradition on ‘Inclusive’ Intended Ambiguity Part V: Ambiguous Receptions Ambivalent Allegories: Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone (1623) between Censorship and Hermeneutic Freedom Multipliers of Ambiguity: The Use of Quotations in Cavafy’s Poems Concerning the Emperor Julian Seven Perspectives of Ambiguity and the Problem of Intentionality List of Contributors General Index Index of Passages