Poor, Foreign, and Desperate: Philostratus’ Fictional Letter-writer Persona in the Erotic Letters
-
Owen Hodkinson
Abstract
This paper will examine the fictional persona - or personae - of the epistolographer in Philostratus’ Erotic Epistles. Recent studies of this collection of love letters (even leaving aside the letters in the corpus that are not erotic) have tended to emphasise its disunity, seen for instance in its fragmented collection of moments, which is akin to Barthes’ A Lovers’ Discourse (Schmitz); in its potential use as a storehouse of erotic persuasion (Goldhill). Of course, there is no clear, single persona that emerges from this collection, whether one to be identified with aspects of the Philostratean author or not. Yet at the same time, the epistolographer has been frequently described as seeming in several letters solipsistic, fetishistic, impoverished, an exile, and as possessing other rather negative or unusual characteristics for one attempting to persuade a would-be lover; and it is with good reason that no one has tried to argue that others of the letters present him in contrastingly positive terms. Further consideration is needed about the effect for the reader of these letters circulating together - both read as if from the same fictional persona, and read as some highly fictionalised version of the Philostratus under whose name they were collected. In this text as in others, Philostratus is capable of playful and sophisticated fictional and metafictional techniques, including (especially) in the creation of narrators’ and other important speakers’/writers’ personae. This paper will explore some of these techniques in the Erotic Epistles, including reassessment of the more consistently negative aspects of the fictional persona.
Abstract
This paper will examine the fictional persona - or personae - of the epistolographer in Philostratus’ Erotic Epistles. Recent studies of this collection of love letters (even leaving aside the letters in the corpus that are not erotic) have tended to emphasise its disunity, seen for instance in its fragmented collection of moments, which is akin to Barthes’ A Lovers’ Discourse (Schmitz); in its potential use as a storehouse of erotic persuasion (Goldhill). Of course, there is no clear, single persona that emerges from this collection, whether one to be identified with aspects of the Philostratean author or not. Yet at the same time, the epistolographer has been frequently described as seeming in several letters solipsistic, fetishistic, impoverished, an exile, and as possessing other rather negative or unusual characteristics for one attempting to persuade a would-be lover; and it is with good reason that no one has tried to argue that others of the letters present him in contrastingly positive terms. Further consideration is needed about the effect for the reader of these letters circulating together - both read as if from the same fictional persona, and read as some highly fictionalised version of the Philostratus under whose name they were collected. In this text as in others, Philostratus is capable of playful and sophisticated fictional and metafictional techniques, including (especially) in the creation of narrators’ and other important speakers’/writers’ personae. This paper will explore some of these techniques in the Erotic Epistles, including reassessment of the more consistently negative aspects of the fictional persona.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface v
- Content vii
- Introduction: Epistolary Fiction versus Spurious Letters 1
-
Part I: Authentic Fictions
- Saturnalische Fiktionen. Lukians Τὰ πρὸς Κρόνον als karnevaleskes Textcorpus 23
- Temps, mythe et littérature dans les Lettres d’Alciphron 35
- Der komödische Brief – Poiesis und Gattungshybride in Alkiphrons Hetärenbriefen 45
- Order and Structure in the Letters of Philostratus 63
- Poor, Foreign, and Desperate: Philostratus’ Fictional Letter-writer Persona in the Erotic Letters 77
- The Letters of Aristaenetus: Attribution, Dating, Cultural Background 105
-
Part II: Disputed Fictions
- Vom Topos zum Ethos: Überlegungen zum Umgang mit tradiertem Gedankengut in den Phalarisbriefen 123
- Der „alte gute“ Euripides der „Euripidesbriefe“, oder: Sinn und Zweck einer „biographie corrigée“ 139
- Ea omnia super Christo Pilatus […] Caesari tunc Tiberio nuntiauit (Tertullien, Apol. 21). Quand les éditeurs fabriquent une lettre de Pilate : l’autonomisation d’une fiction épistolaire 151
- „Von Syrien bis Rom kämpfe ich mit wilden Tieren ...“ (IgnRom 5,1). Die ignatianischen Briefe als literarische Fiktion aufs Neue verteidigt 169
- Redaktionsgeschichte und Fiktion in der Briefsammlung von Nilus Ankyranus 199
- Index nominum 223
- Index rerum 227
- Index locorum 233
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface v
- Content vii
- Introduction: Epistolary Fiction versus Spurious Letters 1
-
Part I: Authentic Fictions
- Saturnalische Fiktionen. Lukians Τὰ πρὸς Κρόνον als karnevaleskes Textcorpus 23
- Temps, mythe et littérature dans les Lettres d’Alciphron 35
- Der komödische Brief – Poiesis und Gattungshybride in Alkiphrons Hetärenbriefen 45
- Order and Structure in the Letters of Philostratus 63
- Poor, Foreign, and Desperate: Philostratus’ Fictional Letter-writer Persona in the Erotic Letters 77
- The Letters of Aristaenetus: Attribution, Dating, Cultural Background 105
-
Part II: Disputed Fictions
- Vom Topos zum Ethos: Überlegungen zum Umgang mit tradiertem Gedankengut in den Phalarisbriefen 123
- Der „alte gute“ Euripides der „Euripidesbriefe“, oder: Sinn und Zweck einer „biographie corrigée“ 139
- Ea omnia super Christo Pilatus […] Caesari tunc Tiberio nuntiauit (Tertullien, Apol. 21). Quand les éditeurs fabriquent une lettre de Pilate : l’autonomisation d’une fiction épistolaire 151
- „Von Syrien bis Rom kämpfe ich mit wilden Tieren ...“ (IgnRom 5,1). Die ignatianischen Briefe als literarische Fiktion aufs Neue verteidigt 169
- Redaktionsgeschichte und Fiktion in der Briefsammlung von Nilus Ankyranus 199
- Index nominum 223
- Index rerum 227
- Index locorum 233
