L’écriture de soi à Rome

Autour de la correspondance de Cicéron

By (author) J.P. De Giorgio

Book cover: L’écriture de soi à Rome

Extent: 305 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Classical Studies

Series: Collection Latomus

Series volume number: 347

Language: French

Paperback (Published)

(May 2015)

ISBN: 9789042932388

Price: $64.00

In stock

The correspondence of Cicero provides a particularly interesting angle for study of the persona because it testifies to the forms and constraints that presided over the representation of oneself within the Roman elite. But above all, inseparable from the crises of the late Republic, Cicero developed an innovative discourse where his priority was sometimes less information in favor of establishing the proper social role to play in a given situation.


English summary: The correspondence of Cicero provides a particularly interesting angle for study of the persona because it testifies to the forms and constraints that presided over the representation of oneself within the Roman elite. But above all, inseparable from the crises of the late Republic, Cicero developed an innovative discourse where his priority was sometimes less information in favor of establishing the proper social role to play in a given situation. French description: La conception de soi-meme a Rome n’a que peu a voir avec celle qui semble triompher a la fin du XVIIIe siecle en Europe, ou l’on assiste litteralement a la naissance d’un genre promis a un grand avenir: l’autobiographie. La correspondance de Ciceron, ego-document de premiere importance, fournit un angle d’etude particulierement interessant a cet egard. Elle temoigne, dans le cadre d’une sociabilite fondee sur les devoirs imposes par l’amicitia, des formes et des contraintes qui presidaient a la representation de soi-meme au sein de l’elite romaine. Mais surtout, inseparable des crises de la Republique tardive, elle developpait un discours innovant ou la priorite etait parfois moins l’information que l’examen du role adequat a jouer. Ecrire devenait alors un art de l’evaluation des circonstances et de l’acte approprie: une technique de soi, developpee avec les amici docti dans un cadre prive, une des formes que pouvait prendre a Rome le souci politique de soi-meme.

  • By (author) J.P. De Giorgio

"...The present volume makes an interesting and unusual contribution to the already vast body of scholarship focused on Cicero's correspondence -- this alone should merit it a place on the bookshelf." --Christian Rollinger, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2016.02.13