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Papers by max L Goldman
This chapter examines the use of ethnicity and environment in the ancient physiognomic handbooks ... more This chapter examines the use of ethnicity and environment in the ancient physiognomic handbooks of Ps.-Aristotle, Polemon, Adamantius and the Anonymus Latinus. Although environmental theory may appear to underlie the author’s use of ethnic comparisons, I argue that these technical writers followed a physiognomic tradition, a tradition that relied on basic stereotypes without explicit environmental basis. Individual authors, however, particularly Polemon and Adamantius, engaged in their own way with environmental theory in their methodological and general discussions.
![Research paper thumbnail of point of view in ancient narratives [in progress; stalled and unfinished]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/30978169/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](The present study aims to re-examine and reformulate some of the ways we analyze and discuss poin... more The present study aims to re-examine and reformulate some of the ways we analyze and discuss point of view in ancient narrative. The scope is thus limited to the textual evocation of point of view in pre-modern texts. Even with this limitation, point of view is an unwieldy subject, a subject that encompases an overwhelming number of disparate phenomena from the types of narrators to the aspect of verbs, from the forms of indirect discourse to description and ecphrasis. Although these topics have been and continue to be discussed, no definitive or comprehensive account of the whole exists nor, given the wide range of topics, is one likely. In addition, point of view overlaps in places with complex philosophical and theoretical questions such as the relationships of ideology to language and of perception to consciousness. For these reasons, I do not provide a comprehensive theoretical model for point of view; instead, I propose to explore in a practical vein how we account for and describe specific aspects of point of view in ancient narratives.
Literary parody was a pervasive technique of Roman writers and the Neronian period is a particula... more Literary parody was a pervasive technique of Roman writers and the Neronian period is a particularly rich source for it. The cultural and political climate of Nero's Rome provides a useful testing ground for an approach to literary parody that grounds the phenomenon in the cultural practices of the Romans more broadly. After a consideration of the nature of parody, I will discuss four examples from this period, Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis, Persius' first satire and coliambic preface, an anonymous fragment of bucolic poetry (the first Einsiedeln Eclogue) and a section from Petronius’ Satyrica. Each of these examples illustrates important features of Latin intertextuality in the comic mode. Despite the intense interest Latinists have shown in allusion and intertextuality, the comic and humorous forms have received comparatively little explicit attention. One purpose of this study is to contribute to the study of Latin intertextuality by a discussion of the comic forms. A second purpose is to place the parodists of the Neronian age in their context and consider to what extent and in what way their parodic practice reflects the structure of power and the literary princeps. This facet is most difficult in relation to the last example because Petronius’s densely allusive structure and his narrative technique make his parodic goals difficult to pin down. Petronius’s parodic purposes have long been a source of scholarly dispute and setting him in the context of Neronian parody will serve clarify the questions, if not to answer them definitively. A definitive answer to those questions may not be possible because the structure of the Satyrica requires that the audience rely on its own literary tastes to determine the parodic purposes. I will argue that that the prismatic effects of Petronius' comic intertextuality bring the very issue of literary taste into question. Ironically, and perhaps appropriately, Petronius's work comments on his own role as Nero’s elegantiae arbiter, his judge of refined taste.
The Classical Quarterly (New Series), Jan 1, 2008
Books by max L Goldman
This chapter examines the use of ethnicity and environment in the ancient physiognomic handbooks ... more This chapter examines the use of ethnicity and environment in the ancient physiognomic handbooks of Ps.-Aristotle, Polemon, Adamantius and the Anonymus Latinus. Although environmental theory may appear to underlie the author’s use of ethnic comparisons, I argue that these technical writers followed a physiognomic tradition, a tradition that relied on basic stereotypes without explicit environmental basis. Individual authors, however, particularly Polemon and Adamantius, engaged in their own way with environmental theory in their methodological and general discussions.
The present study aims to re-examine and reformulate some of the ways we analyze and discuss poin... more The present study aims to re-examine and reformulate some of the ways we analyze and discuss point of view in ancient narrative. The scope is thus limited to the textual evocation of point of view in pre-modern texts. Even with this limitation, point of view is an unwieldy subject, a subject that encompases an overwhelming number of disparate phenomena from the types of narrators to the aspect of verbs, from the forms of indirect discourse to description and ecphrasis. Although these topics have been and continue to be discussed, no definitive or comprehensive account of the whole exists nor, given the wide range of topics, is one likely. In addition, point of view overlaps in places with complex philosophical and theoretical questions such as the relationships of ideology to language and of perception to consciousness. For these reasons, I do not provide a comprehensive theoretical model for point of view; instead, I propose to explore in a practical vein how we account for and describe specific aspects of point of view in ancient narratives.
Literary parody was a pervasive technique of Roman writers and the Neronian period is a particula... more Literary parody was a pervasive technique of Roman writers and the Neronian period is a particularly rich source for it. The cultural and political climate of Nero's Rome provides a useful testing ground for an approach to literary parody that grounds the phenomenon in the cultural practices of the Romans more broadly. After a consideration of the nature of parody, I will discuss four examples from this period, Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis, Persius' first satire and coliambic preface, an anonymous fragment of bucolic poetry (the first Einsiedeln Eclogue) and a section from Petronius’ Satyrica. Each of these examples illustrates important features of Latin intertextuality in the comic mode. Despite the intense interest Latinists have shown in allusion and intertextuality, the comic and humorous forms have received comparatively little explicit attention. One purpose of this study is to contribute to the study of Latin intertextuality by a discussion of the comic forms. A second purpose is to place the parodists of the Neronian age in their context and consider to what extent and in what way their parodic practice reflects the structure of power and the literary princeps. This facet is most difficult in relation to the last example because Petronius’s densely allusive structure and his narrative technique make his parodic goals difficult to pin down. Petronius’s parodic purposes have long been a source of scholarly dispute and setting him in the context of Neronian parody will serve clarify the questions, if not to answer them definitively. A definitive answer to those questions may not be possible because the structure of the Satyrica requires that the audience rely on its own literary tastes to determine the parodic purposes. I will argue that that the prismatic effects of Petronius' comic intertextuality bring the very issue of literary taste into question. Ironically, and perhaps appropriately, Petronius's work comments on his own role as Nero’s elegantiae arbiter, his judge of refined taste.
The Classical Quarterly (New Series), Jan 1, 2008