Quotations in Roman Prose as Intermedial Phenomena
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Ute Tischer
Ute Tischer Zitat und Markierung. Signalisieren und Erfassen von Zitaten in römischer Prosa (University of Potsdam 2018). Her research interests centre upon ancient practices of interpretation, as well as on modern literary theory and its application to ancient literature.
Abstract
This article takes as its starting point the observation that quotations in Latin prose are largely characterised by features of oral communication. It analyses four passages from Cicero, Suetonius, Gellius, and Servius so as to outline how these quotations bridge the verbal and the written, and can therefore be classified as covert intermedial representations. Specific formulae which shape text passages as quotations include both explicit markers such as ferunt (‘they say’) and dixit (‘he said’), as well as implicit hints ranging from demonstrative pronouns (illud, haec) to conjunctions (ut, sicut). These linguistic tags are read within the frameworks of ‘intermedial reference’ and ‘remediation’, thereby yielding insights on how oral and written features meld into the literary quotations of Roman prose. What is more, this chapter demonstrates the merits of its approach to Classical literature by showing that an awareness of media and medialities is conducive to original interpretations of well-studied ancient texts.
About the author
Ute Tischer is Research Fellow at the University of Leipzig. Her recent projects include a monograph about quotation in Roman prose, concentrating primarily on the norms, concepts, and practices associated with this phenomenon. This volume was submitted as her Habilitation thesis under the title Zitat und Markierung. Signalisieren und Erfassen von Zitaten in römischer Prosa (University of Potsdam 2018). Her research interests centre upon ancient practices of interpretation, as well as on modern literary theory and its application to ancient literature.
Acknowledgements
My warmest thanks go to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their careful reading, critical comments and especially for their help in improving the English.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Introduction
- Sensorial Intermedialities in Roman Letters: Cicero, Horace, and Ovid
- Quotations in Roman Prose as Intermedial Phenomena
- Monumental Absences in Ancient Historiography
- Inscriptional Intermediality in Livy
- Intermediality in the Metamorphoses
- The Touch and Taste of War in Latin Battle Narrative
- Stories from the Frontier: Bridging Past and Present at Hadrian’s Wall
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index Rerum
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Introduction
- Sensorial Intermedialities in Roman Letters: Cicero, Horace, and Ovid
- Quotations in Roman Prose as Intermedial Phenomena
- Monumental Absences in Ancient Historiography
- Inscriptional Intermediality in Livy
- Intermediality in the Metamorphoses
- The Touch and Taste of War in Latin Battle Narrative
- Stories from the Frontier: Bridging Past and Present at Hadrian’s Wall
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Index Rerum
