Overview

In this volume, Milnor considers how the fragments of textual graffiti which survive on the walls of the Roman city of Pompeii reflect and refract the literary world from which they emerged. Focusing in particular on the writings which either refer to or quote canonical authors directly, Milnor uncovers the influence-- in diction, style, or structure--of elite Latin literature as the Pompeian graffiti show significant connections with familiar authors such as Ovid, Propertius, and Virgil. While previous scholarship has described these fragments as popular distortions of well-known texts, Milnor argues that they are important cultural products in their own right, since they are able to give us insight into how ordinary Romans responded to and sometimes rewrote works of canonical literature. Additionally, since graffiti are at once textual and material artefacts, they give us the opportunity to see how such writings gave meaning to, and were given meaning by, the ancient urban environment. Ultimately, the volume looks in detail at the role and nature of 'popular' literature in the early Roman Empire and the place of poetry in the Pompeian cityscape.

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9780199684618

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Reviews

She [Milnor] comes across as a thoughtful and even tender curator of a selection of demonstably accomplished graphic artefacts ... Thanks to her, the last voices of Pompeii seem to buzz all the more inventively before everyone falls silent. * Emily Gowers, The Times Literary Supplement * Milnor advances our understanding of what literature meant to the general populace, while contributing to recent scholarship on the social and material contexts of ancient graffiti ... Milnor's book is a welcome addition to the field of graffiti studies. * Sarah Levin-Richardson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Throughout, she displays commendable control of her often difficult subject matter, awareness of the importance adhering to evidentiary and historical contextualisation ... the ability to balance description with close reading and critical evaluation, and welcome restraint from the impulse to over-develop narrative or interpretation. Milnor approaches her Milnor approaches her study in a direct, methodical and thorough manner ... an independent and valuable contribution to historical knowledge. * Peter Keegan, SHARP News * Milnor covers much ground in this volume, examining the literary influences on graffiti, from epigram to ekphrasis, from funerary to epistolary, from elegy to panegyric. * R. Benefiel, Journal of Roman Studies *

Milnor advances our understanding of what literature meant to the general populace, while contributing to recent scholarship on the social and material contexts of ancient graffiti ... Milnor's book is a welcome addition to the field of graffiti studies. Sarah Levin-Richardson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Author Information

Kristina Milnor is Professor and Chair of Classics and Ancient Studies at Barnard College where she has taught since 1998. She is the author of Gender, Domesticity, and the Age of Augustus: Inventing Private Life (OUP, 2005), which won the 2006 Goodwin Award of Merit from the American Philological Association.

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