The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's AeneidOne of the masterpieces of Latin and, indeed, world literature, Virgil's Aeneid was written during the Augustan "renaissance" of architecture, art, and literature that redefined the Roman world in the early years of the empire. This period was marked by a transition from the use of rhetoric as a means of public persuasion to the use of images to display imperial power. Taking a fresh approach to Virgil's epic poem, Riggs Alden Smith argues that the Aeneid fundamentally participates in the Augustan shift from rhetoric to imagery because it gives primacy to vision over speech as the principal means of gathering and conveying information as it recounts the heroic adventures of Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome. Working from the theories of French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Smith characterizes Aeneas as a voyant-visible, a person who both sees and is seen and who approaches the world through the faculty of vision. Engaging in close readings of key episodes throughout the poem, Smith shows how Aeneas repeatedly acts on what he sees rather than what he hears. Smith views Aeneas' final act of slaying Turnus, a character associated with the power of oratory, as the victory of vision over rhetoric, a triumph that reflects the ascendancy of visual symbols within Augustan society. Smith's new interpretation of the predominance of vision in the Aeneid makes it plain that Virgil's epic contributes to a new visual culture and a new mythology of Imperial Rome. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 48
... Rhetoric (Part 1): Effete oratores 133 Drances and Turnus: Opposing Visions 139 Hercules and Cacus: Light, Darkness, and Diction 147 Failure of Rhetoric (Part 2): The Futility of Battlefield Entreaty in Books 10–12 152 Failure of Rhetoric ...
... with vision in such a way that, after continuous tension between rhetoric and vision throughout the poem, vision ultimately triumphs as the dominant means of communication and 2 the primacy of vision in virgil's Aeneid.
... rhetoric in the Roman Republic and the waxing influence of images in the new empire.15 Paul Zanker and Karl Galinsky have shown that visual messages played a major role in shaping Augustan culture. Zanker notes that images primarily ...
... rhetoric to vision as the primary means of conveying and gathering information.This shift is important becauseit informs Aeneas' decisions in theepic, from leaving Dido to killing Turnus.To support andexplicate this thesis, I will apply ...
... rhetorical persuasion but relies on visual stimuli. Aeneas' gaze can enable him to show compassion, but the actions ... rhetoric to vision as the paramount form of communication in the narrative. In addition to gathering information ...
Contents
1 | |
Ruse and Revelation Visions of the Divine and the Telos of Narrative | 24 |
Vision Past and Future | 60 |
Hic amor Love Vision and Destiny | 97 |
Vidi Vici Visions Victory and the Telos of Narrative | 128 |
Conclusion Ante ora parentum | 176 |
Notes | 183 |
Bibliography | 223 |
Subject Index | 237 |
Index Locorum | 247 |