Description
- Abstract:
- This dissertation examines allusive correspondences between simile and narrative within the Aeneid. Rather than illustrating a limited tertium comparationis, the similes of the Aeneid engage in an allusive dialogue with marked narrative episodes outside their immediate context. Grounded in Conte's observations of the similar processes underlying allusion and figurative language such as simile and metaphor, this type of reading serves to identify specific mechanics by which Vergilian themes and motifs are constructed. Intratextual allusion is similar to the normal comparative function of a simile, but focuses Vergil's audience on disparate moments of the epic simultaneously. By merging two major approaches to the Aeneid, scholarship which examines Vergil's use of a particular poetic technique within the epic (in this case, simile), and analysis of Vergilian allusion, this study advances the work of Pöschl and others on the contribution of imagery to the poetic structure and meaning of the Aeneid. Four studies on nature themes and an excursus on the figure of the pastor examine the intersecting worlds of simile and narrative, supplemented by a list of similes with their thematic contents and internal and external allusions. The first chapter explores the influence of tree similes on the articulation of the Italian landscape and the characterization of Mezentius and Aeneas. The second chapter addresses the structural role of insect similes in the epic, and the figurative fulfillment of the bee prodigy in book seven. The third chapter focuses on the extensive parallels between the simile comparing Dido to a deer, in book four, and the death of Silvia's stag. In both of these chapters, questions arise about the culpability of Aeneas; the Excursus on the shepherd addresses these questions and the theme of knowledge failure in the epic. A fourth chapter considers the thematic background of Aeneas' and Turnus' characterization as bulls in their final battle. The dissertation highlights the central importance of book seven, where Vergil constructs Aeneas' Roman landscape from a background of epic similes, as well as the multi-dimensional and non-linear qualities of the poem.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Brown University (2009)
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Citation
Schell, Keeley C.,
"Vergil's Self-Referential Simile: Thematic Construction through Internal Allusion in the Aeneid"
(2009).
Classics Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0W0946W
