Provocation and Truth. Form and Meaning of Stoic Paradoxes in Latin Poetry, in Lucilius, Horace, Lucan, and Persius.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 17197 |
| Format | 16 x 24 |
| Détails | 499 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2013 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
The presence of Stoic paradoxes in the work of poets with diverse connections to the Portico reveals the special status occupied by these disconcerting formulas in Roman thought. After studying the origins of paradox and its transformations during the development of Greek philosophical schools, this work examines the specificity of the Stoic paradox and its adaptation to the Roman world. Against all expectations, the Stoics did not renounce these disconcerting assertions. Thanks to their rhetorical effectiveness, and despite the hostility they aroused elsewhere, the paradoxes were taken up in texts foreign to the Portico. Their adaptation in poetic satires by Lucilius, Horace and Persius, epodes, odes and epistles of Horace and Lucanian epic could lead us to consider them perverted and diverted from their original purpose. Indeed, the goal of these poets is in no way to make the reader adhere to the uncompromising perfection outlined by the Stoic paradoxes. But the link between the paradoxes found in this poetic corpus and their Stoic origin is in reality much more intimate. In different ways, each poet takes up the essence of the paradoxical approach of the Portico: it is indeed a question of awakening consciences, and of underlining the radical novelty of the truth that one wishes to hear, while ensuring that the reader can rally to it. The virulence of Lucilius, the Horatian tone of confidence, the Lucanian stupor and the obscurity of Perse constitute the distinct but convergent paths by which the subtle enterprise of shocking in order to better convert is carried out. Diane Demanche is an agrégée in Classical Literature and teaches French, Latin and Greek in secondary schools. She devoted her doctoral thesis to the study of paradox in ancient thought, and in particular to Stoic paradoxes.
The presence of Stoic paradoxes in the work of poets with diverse connections to the Portico reveals the special status occupied by these disconcerting formulas in Roman thought. After studying the origins of paradox and its transformations during the development of Greek philosophical schools, this work examines the specificity of the Stoic paradox and its adaptation to the Roman world. Against all expectations, the Stoics did not renounce these disconcerting assertions. Thanks to their rhetorical effectiveness, and despite the hostility they aroused elsewhere, the paradoxes were taken up in texts foreign to the Portico. Their adaptation in poetic satires by Lucilius, Horace and Persius, epodes, odes and epistles of Horace and Lucanian epic could lead us to consider them perverted and diverted from their original purpose. Indeed, the goal of these poets is in no way to make the reader adhere to the uncompromising perfection outlined by the Stoic paradoxes. But the link between the paradoxes found in this poetic corpus and their Stoic origin is in reality much more intimate. In different ways, each poet takes up the essence of the paradoxical approach of the Portico: it is indeed a question of awakening consciences, and of underlining the radical novelty of the truth that one wishes to hear, while ensuring that the reader can rally to it. The virulence of Lucilius, the Horatian tone of confidence, the Lucanian stupor and the obscurity of Perse constitute the distinct but convergent paths by which the subtle enterprise of shocking in order to better convert is carried out. Diane Demanche is an agrégée in Classical Literature and teaches French, Latin and Greek in secondary schools. She devoted her doctoral thesis to the study of paradox in ancient thought, and in particular to Stoic paradoxes.