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Product Information
Propertius (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.Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of California Press
ISBN-139780520223189
eBay Product ID (ePID)89380548
Product Key Features
Book TitleThe Politics of Desire: Propertius Iv
AuthorMicaela Janan
FormatHardcover
LanguageEnglish
TopicLiterature, Poetry
Publication Year2000
Number of Pages255 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height229mm
Item Width152mm
Item Weight463g
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorMicaela Janan
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States
