The Politics of Desire: Propertius IVPropertius (ca. 54 b.c.--ca. 2 b.c.) was a Roman poet who composed four compelling books of elegies in the chaotic years surrounding Rome's transition from republic to empire. The first three of these books revolve mostly around a tormented love affair with a woman called Cynthia. The fourth book of poetry rests on more diverse subject matter and is notoriously the most opaque and elusive. In The Politics of Desire, Micaela Janan radically reassesses Propertius' last elegies, using contemporary psychoanalytic theory to illuminate these challenging texts. Janan finds that the upheaval of Rome's transformation to empire corresponds to the intellectually unsettled conditions of our own time, so that contemporary methodologies offer an uncannily suitable approach for understanding Propertius. In particular, she uses the work of Jacques Lacan, since it provides the best conceptual tools for examining the relation between political crisis and the struggles of the self, a theme that resonates in these difficult elegies. This book expands our understanding of an important Roman poet, and its innovative and sophisticated methodological approach makes a substantial contribution to feminist and psychoanalytic criticism. In addition, Janan addresses elegy's relationship to larger cultural questions, and broadens our understanding of the social crisis affecting Rome during the early empire. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Theoretical Preliminaries | 11 |
Shadow of a Doubt Framing the Subject in the Gallus Poems | 33 |
The Ethics of Evil Arethusa to Lycotas 43 | 53 |
Beyond Good and Evil Tarpeia and Philosophy in the Feminine 44 | 70 |
The Return of the Dead The Acanthis Elegy 45 | 85 |
The Book of Revelation Cynthias Truth 47 | 100 |
Cynthia Returns from Lanuvium 48 | 114 |
Hercules in Rome 49 | 128 |
The Phenomenology of the Spirits 411 | 146 |
Dreaming Rome | 164 |
NOTES | 169 |
| 215 | |
| 237 | |
| 243 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Acanthis Aeneas Aeneid aetiology aligns amorous ancient appears Appius Ara Maxima Arethusa's argues articulated Augustan Augustus beloved Bona Dea Book IV's Cacus Callimachus Carneades Catullus chapter coherent conceptual contradiction Cornelia Cornelius Gallus corpus cultural Cynthia Danaids decemvirs desire discussion divine Eclogue elegiac elegy elegy's empire enemy erotic ethical example fact fantasy female feminine Forum Gallus poems gender Gutzwiller Hallett Hercules identity impasse implies insofar interpretation jouissance Lacan's language Lanuvium lena Livy Livy's logical lover Lycotas masculine meaning mistress Monobiblos narrative nonetheless notes object Octavian's offers Ovid Paullus pertius poem's poet poet's poetry political portrait Propertian Propertius pure quilting reading relation Richardson 1977 ritual rival Roman Romanitas Rome Rome's Romulus Sabine scholars sexual signifier sketches social spolia opima Stahl Symbolic Tarpeia Tatius thought Tibullus tion Tiresias traces Tränkle Underworld Vergil Verginia virtue Warden Weeber Woman women Wyke Žižek