Jesús HERNÁNDEZ LOBATO | University of Salamanca (original) (raw)

Books (Selection) by Jesús HERNÁNDEZ LOBATO

A pioneering collection of studies on notions and uses of self-reflexivity in late antique litera... more A pioneering collection of studies on notions and uses of self-reflexivity in late antique literature

The aesthetic changes in late Roman literature speak to the foundations of modern Western culture... more The aesthetic changes in late Roman literature speak to the foundations of modern Western culture. The dawn of a modern way of being in the world, one that most Europeans and Americans would recognize as closely ancestral to their own, is to be found not in the distant antiquity of Greece nor in the golden age of a Roman empire that spanned the Mediterranean, but more fundamentally in the original and problematic fusion of Greco-Roman culture with a new and unexpected foreign element—the arrival of Christianity as an exclusive state religion. For a host of reasons, traditionalist scholarship has failed to give a full and positive account of the formal, aesthetic and religious transformations of ancient poetics in Late Antiquity. This book attempts to capture the excitement and vibrancy of the living ancient tradition reinventing itself in a new context in the hands of a series of great Latin writers mainly from the fourth and fifth centuries AD. A series of the most distinguished expert voices in later Latin poetry as well as some of the most exciting new scholars have been specially commissioned to write new papers for this volume.

Pour désigner cette production, il y aurait quelque naïveté à se référer à un événement, à une do... more Pour désigner cette production, il y aurait quelque naïveté à se référer à un événement, à une doctrine ou au nom d'un auteur. Cette production appartient sans doute à la totalité d'une époque, qui est la nôtre, mais elle a toujours déjà commencé à s'annoncer et à travailler.

Este libro traza por primera vez en su conjunto el complejo panorama de la recepción de las obras... more Este libro traza por primera vez en su conjunto el complejo panorama de la recepción de las obras de Sidonio Apolinar (430/431-c. 487 d. C.) desde su muerte hasta la primera mitad del Cinquecento, el momento crucial en que los textos de dicho autor (y de tantos otros escritores tardoantiguos) quedaron sepultados en el olvido y la incuria.

Questo libro dipinge per la prima volta nel suo insieme il complesso panorama della ricezione delle opere di Sidonio Apollinare (430/431-c. 487 d. C.) dalla sua morte fino alla prima metà del Cinquecento, il momento cruciale in cui i testi di questo autore (e di tanti altri scrittori tardoantichi) furono seppelliti nell’oblio e l’incuria.

La extrema popularidad literaria de la que Sidonio Apolinar (siglo V d.C.) gozó en vida marcó de ... more La extrema popularidad literaria de la que Sidonio Apolinar (siglo V d.C.) gozó en vida marcó de un modo decisivo el curso estético de las décadas que sucedieron a su muerte. Fue uno de los autores más leídos e imitados durante toda la Edad Media, a pesar de su extremo preciosismo formal, su complejidad expresiva y su oscuro conceptismo. La obra poética de Sidonio Apolinar, a excepción de las trece piezas en verso insertas dentro del «corpus» de epístolas, se nos ha transmitido en una colección de veinticuatro poemas, métrica y temáticamente variados. Esta edición bilingüe ofrece la primera traducción española en verso de su poesía. Dada su dificultad, cada poema va acompañado de un breve comentario introductorio, en el que se abordan todos los aspectos pertinentes para su correcta comprensión: fecha y circunstancias de composición, estructura, métrica, género literario, influencias, claves de interpretación, etc.

Articles and Book Chapters (Selection) by Jesús HERNÁNDEZ LOBATO

Rutilius Namatianus's poem De Reditu Suo, written around AD 418, is especially famous for its glo... more Rutilius Namatianus's poem De Reditu Suo, written around AD 418, is especially famous for its gloomy and almost "romantic" depictions of ruins and nocturnal landscapes. However, at a deeper level of reading, it thematizes an anxiety towards the ideas of origin, fatherhood/fatherland, and language that is systematically explored in this paper from different theoretical perspectives, most notably Lacanian psychoanalysis. This new insight into the underlying fears and hopes conveyed (and often silenced) by the poem allows a new interpretation of the piece in its entirety, which should ultimately be considered as a reaction to the collapse of classical logocentrism.

B Y THE TIME of Sidonius Apollinaris' death (479 CE or later) his epitaph 1 unproblematically boa... more B Y THE TIME of Sidonius Apollinaris' death (479 CE or later) his epitaph 1 unproblematically boasted that he was 'unknown to none' (nulli incognitus) and that his sophisticated works were set to become the toast of future generations (scripsit perpetuis habenda seclis). He was simply a 'must read' (legendus orbi). Today, more than fi fteen hundred years later, we can see that this posthumous prophecy was too optimistic: although a distinct literary voice in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Sidonius' role was narrowed down to being a fi xed point of reference for sixteenth-to eighteenth-century scholarship, while defi nitely becoming a minor infl uence after that. In recent years, the renewed interest and critical appraisal of his work among classicists and medievalists have made relevant again the question of what made him important-and controversial-to readers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and what cultural and historical transformations ultimately steered him outside the mainstream. This chapter aims to provide a critical overview of this complex and nuanced issue. 2 which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). review relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). use which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. use which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). use relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). only which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. only which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). only relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011).-do Carm. do Carm. not Carm.

Ausonius’ Mosella has been recently suggested to be inter- and hyper-textually modelled on the si... more Ausonius’ Mosella has been recently suggested to be inter- and hyper-textually modelled on the sixth book of Virgil’s Aeneid. Recent studies have drawn not only political but also epistemological and philosophical conclusions from that fact. However, the catalogue of fish at the very heart of the poem (ll. 82-149) has been traditionally considered a curious interlude of didactic poetry, almost unrelated to the general construction of the piece. This paper proposes reinterpreting this catalogue, immediately following the poet’s numinous encounter with the transparent waters of the Moselle (ll. 23-81), as a playful homage to the famous scene following Aeneas’ vision of the river Lethe (Aen. 6. 678-751): the catalogue of illustrious Romans waiting their turn to be (re)born at the river’s edge (Aen. 6. 752-892). Ausonius’ imitative cluster interweaves this underlying scene with a set of interconnected (though not rarely conflicting) texts: Ovid’ Halieutica and Metamorphoses, Homer’s catalogue of ship (Il. 2,484-877), Ennius’ Hedyphagetica and even a hidden technopaegnion. This allusive network of superimposed genres and conventions proves to be essential to achieve a deeper understanding of the crucial role of this catalogue within the poem’s conceptual and literary architecture.

The second part of Sidonius’ panegyric to the emperor Anthemius (carm. 2), which, unlike the firs... more The second part of Sidonius’ panegyric to the emperor Anthemius (carm. 2), which, unlike the first one, is entirely dominated by personification and allegory (two strictly literary domains), is stuffed with metaphors of poetic self-representation: Apollo, the Muses or Camenae, the ship of poetry, the poet’s voice in the first person, etc. This paper focuses on two of them: the description of the kingdom of Aurora and the myth of Phoenix. The description of the oriental dwelling of Aurora (carm. 2.407-435), to which Rome, besieged by the Vandal host of Gensericus, hastens to ask for help, condenses into less than thirty lines a large proportion of the essential characteristics of Sidonius’ poetics. The essential unreality of this kingdom makes it ideal for the symbolic incarnation of the strange non-place of literature and at the same time provides the author with a privileged vehicle for metapoetic reflection. Similarly, the Phoenix appears to evoke the hope (long cherished by Sidonius himself) of a rebirth of poetry under a new aesthetic paradigm: that of an “auroral” literature which like the Phoenix must emigrate to the Orient (i.e. Asianise itself) so as to be able to return with renewed spirits once transformed —at the same time different and unchanged. This paper analyses the implications and interconnexions of both self-representational metaphors, as well as their role in the literary construction of the panegyric to Anthemius (carm. 1 and 2), which, not for nothing, opens Sidonius’ collection of carmina.

Ovid in Late Antiquity, 2018

This chapter aims to elucidate to what extent Ausonius’ Mosella (4th century) and Fulgentius’ Myt... more This chapter aims to elucidate to what extent Ausonius’ Mosella (4th century) and Fulgentius’ Mythologies (last quarter of the 5th century) should be understood and interpreted as polemical rewritings/updatings of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, that is to say, as the Metamorphoses Revisited of the late antique world. Ovid’s poem is not only to be seen as an occasional source of intertexts or as an aesthetic model, but primarily as the hypotext underlying and modelling both works. In fact, there is a continuous hypertextual tension agonistically opposing two different but intimately interconnected literary and philosophical paradigms, an ‘anxiety of influence’ toward both the literary ‘format’ of the Metamorphoses and the discourse on change, transience and mutability implicit in this format. This study shows how the process of critical rewriting carried out by Ausonius and Fulgentius entailed a progressive (Neo-)Platonization of the Ovidian masterpiece, so that it might fit the new epochal anxieties of Late Antiquity.

In a context of generalized resurgence of late antique studies (after centuries of neglect, lack ... more In a context of generalized resurgence of late antique studies (after centuries of neglect, lack of understanding, and contempt), the unexpected topicality of this period’s culture has begun to emerge. In the last decades, a few pioneering studies have begun to analyze and vindicate late antique literature from the novel perspective of postmodern theory, thus highlighting a series of intriguing concomitances and shared concerns with our own time and age. This paper raises for the first time the opposite question: was postmodern theory significantly influenced by late antique literature (taken as a whole)? To what extent was the creative revisitation of certain late antique authors a key element in the forging of postmodernism? Which aspects of late antique culture might have inspired the founders of contemporary theory in their crusade against the fallacies of modernity?

The introduction to this volume addresses three main issues. First, it provides a critical a reas... more The introduction to this volume addresses three main issues. First, it provides a critical a reassessment of the discipline of late antique studies, going back to its very foundations and revealing its historical, cultural and political biases. Secondly, it presents and discusses the aesthetic/poetic paradigm of late antique literature and art proposed by the editors, thus setting forth the conceptual frame underlying the whole volume. To this end, notions like metaliterary twist, hybridization, poetics of the uncommon, culture of spolia, appropriationism, era of interpretation, cumulative aesthetics, poetics of the fragment/detail, etc. are briefly explained and discussed with the aid a number of representative examples. Last but not least, it explores the intriguing topicality of late antique culture in its problematic relationship to postmodern world. As usual in these pieces, the introduction also presents and justifies the volume’s aim and structure, as well as the main topics discussed by the different contributors.

This chapter identifies a typically late antique phenomenon: the emergence of a pervasive “poetic... more This chapter identifies a typically late antique phenomenon: the emergence of a pervasive “poetics of silence”, involving a metaliterary problematization of language and representation. This phenomenon, reminiscent of the postmodern “linguistic turn”, is not restricted to the field of literature, but can be defined as omnipresent in late antique culture, underlying Augustine’s semiotics, Evagrius Ponticus’ hesychasm, Gregory of Nyssa’s apophatic theology or Pseudo-Dionysius’ negative mysticism. The chapter focuses on the different ways in which this problem (embodied in the metaphor of silence) is tackled by several authors: Sidonius Apollinaris, Fulgentius, Augustine of Hippo, Ausonius, Rutilus Namatianus and the anonymous writer of the Peruigilium Veneris. At times, silence is depicted as the haven of tranquillity which enables literary creation; at other times, it is a threat of dissolution hovering over the fragility of the poet’s work; most often, it is the deep, ultimately unknowable reality beyond the murmuring of words. Despite this variety, there is something common to all these authors: their problematizing approach to human language and their inner distrust of the classical idea of representation, teetering on the brink of collapse amidst the crisis of certainties that shook the very foundations of late antique society.

This paper aims to reinterpret Ausonius’ Mosella as a complex and many-layered depiction of a sui... more This paper aims to reinterpret Ausonius’ Mosella as a complex and many-layered depiction of a sui generis epiphanic experience, ultimately triggered by an unmediated encounter with nature. This sudden “revelation”, be it real or merely an artful literary device, did not only provide Ausonius with a deeper insight into the world around him, but also raised many epistemological issues on the limits of human knowledge and the (in)ability of language to convey reality. Both aspects —the poetical rendering of a non-discursive quasi-mystical experience and the epistemological and philosophical reflections it brings about— pervade the whole of the poem and are absolutely central to an in-depth understanding of it very raison d’être. To this end, the paper carefully analyses the metaphorical implications of the subject of the river, simultaneously conceived as a problematic imago Imperii (i.e., in its political dimension) and as speculum mundi (i.e., in its epistemological one). At the same time, it explores the poem’s hyper- and inter-textual construction, based on a sustained and substantial dialogue with a wide range of texts: the sixth book of the Aeneid, Plato’s myth of the Cave, Plotinus’ Enneads, the stories of Er, Narcissus and Ulysses (as transmitted by Plato, Ovid and Homer), the Pythagorean symbola and even the Pauline Epistles.

This chapter aims to highlight the conceptual dimension of Optatian’s poetry. It does so by rethi... more This chapter aims to highlight the conceptual dimension of Optatian’s poetry. It does so by rethinking the works of Optatian from two perspectives: first, that of twentieth-century conceptual art (above all works by Smithson, Graham, Kosuth, Darboven and Opałka); and second, with reference to Borges’ writings. This novel approach can not only encourage a fruitful and unprejudiced dialogue with our own postmodern society, but still more importantly also highlight certain aspects of Optatian’s work which are directly related to the profound philosophical, cultural and religious transformations which forged the innermost substratum of late antiquity. Thus, Optatian’s ‘conceptual poetry’ can be seen to give form to many of the great aesthetic, philosophic and cultural trends of his age: the metaliterary twist of late-antique literature (problematising the notions of language and representation), Gregory of Nyssa’s theory of language, Augustine’s semiotics, apophatic mysticism, the epochal obsession with the ideas of time, infinity and eternity, the new theology of Incarnation, the aesthetic vindication of openness and multiplicity, etc.

El binomio escepticismo y religión, tan manoseado a lo largo de los siglos, parece remitirnos a d... more El binomio escepticismo y religión, tan manoseado a lo largo de los siglos, parece remitirnos a dos polaridades dicotómicamente enfrentadas y mutuamente excluyentes. Este breve artículo plantea, sin embargo, una pregunta esencial, casi propedéutica : ¿ es posible reconciliar de algún modo los dos términos de dicha oposición ? ¿ Existe una síntesis que supere y a la vez englobe la aparente fractura entre la tesis de la religión y la antítesis del escepticismo ? ¿ Existe, en definitiva, algo así como un « escepticismo religioso » o una « religiosidad escéptica », capaz de disolver las aporías que separan ambos polos, acaso artificialmente enfrentados ? Este trabajo tratará de dilucidar hasta qué punto la teología negativa o apofática esbozada desde los albores mismos del cristianismo y extensamente desarrollada por los llamados padres de la Iglesia puede caracterizarse con todo rigor como una modalidad cristiana de escepticismo epistemológico. Nuestro análisis tomará como referencia la obra de Gregorio de Nisa (c. 335-post 394), uno de los pensadores más originales y lúcidos de la Antigüedad tardía 1 .

This paper aims to reassess Peter Greenaway’s filmography, in particular his acclaimed 1996 motio... more This paper aims to reassess Peter Greenaway’s filmography, in particular his acclaimed 1996 motion picture The Pillow Book, as a lucid reflection on the postmodern problem of textualized identities. By means of a thorough analysis of the sophisticated narrative, intertextual and aesthetical devices used in this film, this study identifies and interprets for the first time some particularly relevant visual clues, which give proof of a surprising depth and consistency as
cinematic metaphors.

This paper analyzes the poem In refectorio (CPL 1087) by Martin of Braga (c. 515-579 AD) from a p... more This paper analyzes the poem In refectorio (CPL 1087) by Martin of Braga (c. 515-579 AD) from a philological, literary and aesthetic point of view. This short piece has a striking peculiarity: almost 8 of its 10 verses are taken unchanged from Sidonius Apollinaris’ carm. 17, written around one century before. The few «original» passages combine several Sidonian terms (borrowed from the same poem) with strong intertextual echos of Sedulius’ Carmen paschale (CPL 1447). This study explores the meaning of such an unusual modus operandi, surprisingly similar to that of postmodern ready-mades.

A pioneering collection of studies on notions and uses of self-reflexivity in late antique litera... more A pioneering collection of studies on notions and uses of self-reflexivity in late antique literature

The aesthetic changes in late Roman literature speak to the foundations of modern Western culture... more The aesthetic changes in late Roman literature speak to the foundations of modern Western culture. The dawn of a modern way of being in the world, one that most Europeans and Americans would recognize as closely ancestral to their own, is to be found not in the distant antiquity of Greece nor in the golden age of a Roman empire that spanned the Mediterranean, but more fundamentally in the original and problematic fusion of Greco-Roman culture with a new and unexpected foreign element—the arrival of Christianity as an exclusive state religion. For a host of reasons, traditionalist scholarship has failed to give a full and positive account of the formal, aesthetic and religious transformations of ancient poetics in Late Antiquity. This book attempts to capture the excitement and vibrancy of the living ancient tradition reinventing itself in a new context in the hands of a series of great Latin writers mainly from the fourth and fifth centuries AD. A series of the most distinguished expert voices in later Latin poetry as well as some of the most exciting new scholars have been specially commissioned to write new papers for this volume.

Pour désigner cette production, il y aurait quelque naïveté à se référer à un événement, à une do... more Pour désigner cette production, il y aurait quelque naïveté à se référer à un événement, à une doctrine ou au nom d'un auteur. Cette production appartient sans doute à la totalité d'une époque, qui est la nôtre, mais elle a toujours déjà commencé à s'annoncer et à travailler.

Este libro traza por primera vez en su conjunto el complejo panorama de la recepción de las obras... more Este libro traza por primera vez en su conjunto el complejo panorama de la recepción de las obras de Sidonio Apolinar (430/431-c. 487 d. C.) desde su muerte hasta la primera mitad del Cinquecento, el momento crucial en que los textos de dicho autor (y de tantos otros escritores tardoantiguos) quedaron sepultados en el olvido y la incuria.

Questo libro dipinge per la prima volta nel suo insieme il complesso panorama della ricezione delle opere di Sidonio Apollinare (430/431-c. 487 d. C.) dalla sua morte fino alla prima metà del Cinquecento, il momento cruciale in cui i testi di questo autore (e di tanti altri scrittori tardoantichi) furono seppelliti nell’oblio e l’incuria.

La extrema popularidad literaria de la que Sidonio Apolinar (siglo V d.C.) gozó en vida marcó de ... more La extrema popularidad literaria de la que Sidonio Apolinar (siglo V d.C.) gozó en vida marcó de un modo decisivo el curso estético de las décadas que sucedieron a su muerte. Fue uno de los autores más leídos e imitados durante toda la Edad Media, a pesar de su extremo preciosismo formal, su complejidad expresiva y su oscuro conceptismo. La obra poética de Sidonio Apolinar, a excepción de las trece piezas en verso insertas dentro del «corpus» de epístolas, se nos ha transmitido en una colección de veinticuatro poemas, métrica y temáticamente variados. Esta edición bilingüe ofrece la primera traducción española en verso de su poesía. Dada su dificultad, cada poema va acompañado de un breve comentario introductorio, en el que se abordan todos los aspectos pertinentes para su correcta comprensión: fecha y circunstancias de composición, estructura, métrica, género literario, influencias, claves de interpretación, etc.

Rutilius Namatianus's poem De Reditu Suo, written around AD 418, is especially famous for its glo... more Rutilius Namatianus's poem De Reditu Suo, written around AD 418, is especially famous for its gloomy and almost "romantic" depictions of ruins and nocturnal landscapes. However, at a deeper level of reading, it thematizes an anxiety towards the ideas of origin, fatherhood/fatherland, and language that is systematically explored in this paper from different theoretical perspectives, most notably Lacanian psychoanalysis. This new insight into the underlying fears and hopes conveyed (and often silenced) by the poem allows a new interpretation of the piece in its entirety, which should ultimately be considered as a reaction to the collapse of classical logocentrism.

B Y THE TIME of Sidonius Apollinaris' death (479 CE or later) his epitaph 1 unproblematically boa... more B Y THE TIME of Sidonius Apollinaris' death (479 CE or later) his epitaph 1 unproblematically boasted that he was 'unknown to none' (nulli incognitus) and that his sophisticated works were set to become the toast of future generations (scripsit perpetuis habenda seclis). He was simply a 'must read' (legendus orbi). Today, more than fi fteen hundred years later, we can see that this posthumous prophecy was too optimistic: although a distinct literary voice in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Sidonius' role was narrowed down to being a fi xed point of reference for sixteenth-to eighteenth-century scholarship, while defi nitely becoming a minor infl uence after that. In recent years, the renewed interest and critical appraisal of his work among classicists and medievalists have made relevant again the question of what made him important-and controversial-to readers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and what cultural and historical transformations ultimately steered him outside the mainstream. This chapter aims to provide a critical overview of this complex and nuanced issue. 2 which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). review relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). use which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. use which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). use relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). only which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. only which it is a pleasure to owe'), respectively modelled on Sidon. relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011). only relationship see Consolino (2006) and Condorelli (2011).-do Carm. do Carm. not Carm.

Ausonius’ Mosella has been recently suggested to be inter- and hyper-textually modelled on the si... more Ausonius’ Mosella has been recently suggested to be inter- and hyper-textually modelled on the sixth book of Virgil’s Aeneid. Recent studies have drawn not only political but also epistemological and philosophical conclusions from that fact. However, the catalogue of fish at the very heart of the poem (ll. 82-149) has been traditionally considered a curious interlude of didactic poetry, almost unrelated to the general construction of the piece. This paper proposes reinterpreting this catalogue, immediately following the poet’s numinous encounter with the transparent waters of the Moselle (ll. 23-81), as a playful homage to the famous scene following Aeneas’ vision of the river Lethe (Aen. 6. 678-751): the catalogue of illustrious Romans waiting their turn to be (re)born at the river’s edge (Aen. 6. 752-892). Ausonius’ imitative cluster interweaves this underlying scene with a set of interconnected (though not rarely conflicting) texts: Ovid’ Halieutica and Metamorphoses, Homer’s catalogue of ship (Il. 2,484-877), Ennius’ Hedyphagetica and even a hidden technopaegnion. This allusive network of superimposed genres and conventions proves to be essential to achieve a deeper understanding of the crucial role of this catalogue within the poem’s conceptual and literary architecture.

The second part of Sidonius’ panegyric to the emperor Anthemius (carm. 2), which, unlike the firs... more The second part of Sidonius’ panegyric to the emperor Anthemius (carm. 2), which, unlike the first one, is entirely dominated by personification and allegory (two strictly literary domains), is stuffed with metaphors of poetic self-representation: Apollo, the Muses or Camenae, the ship of poetry, the poet’s voice in the first person, etc. This paper focuses on two of them: the description of the kingdom of Aurora and the myth of Phoenix. The description of the oriental dwelling of Aurora (carm. 2.407-435), to which Rome, besieged by the Vandal host of Gensericus, hastens to ask for help, condenses into less than thirty lines a large proportion of the essential characteristics of Sidonius’ poetics. The essential unreality of this kingdom makes it ideal for the symbolic incarnation of the strange non-place of literature and at the same time provides the author with a privileged vehicle for metapoetic reflection. Similarly, the Phoenix appears to evoke the hope (long cherished by Sidonius himself) of a rebirth of poetry under a new aesthetic paradigm: that of an “auroral” literature which like the Phoenix must emigrate to the Orient (i.e. Asianise itself) so as to be able to return with renewed spirits once transformed —at the same time different and unchanged. This paper analyses the implications and interconnexions of both self-representational metaphors, as well as their role in the literary construction of the panegyric to Anthemius (carm. 1 and 2), which, not for nothing, opens Sidonius’ collection of carmina.

Ovid in Late Antiquity, 2018

This chapter aims to elucidate to what extent Ausonius’ Mosella (4th century) and Fulgentius’ Myt... more This chapter aims to elucidate to what extent Ausonius’ Mosella (4th century) and Fulgentius’ Mythologies (last quarter of the 5th century) should be understood and interpreted as polemical rewritings/updatings of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, that is to say, as the Metamorphoses Revisited of the late antique world. Ovid’s poem is not only to be seen as an occasional source of intertexts or as an aesthetic model, but primarily as the hypotext underlying and modelling both works. In fact, there is a continuous hypertextual tension agonistically opposing two different but intimately interconnected literary and philosophical paradigms, an ‘anxiety of influence’ toward both the literary ‘format’ of the Metamorphoses and the discourse on change, transience and mutability implicit in this format. This study shows how the process of critical rewriting carried out by Ausonius and Fulgentius entailed a progressive (Neo-)Platonization of the Ovidian masterpiece, so that it might fit the new epochal anxieties of Late Antiquity.

In a context of generalized resurgence of late antique studies (after centuries of neglect, lack ... more In a context of generalized resurgence of late antique studies (after centuries of neglect, lack of understanding, and contempt), the unexpected topicality of this period’s culture has begun to emerge. In the last decades, a few pioneering studies have begun to analyze and vindicate late antique literature from the novel perspective of postmodern theory, thus highlighting a series of intriguing concomitances and shared concerns with our own time and age. This paper raises for the first time the opposite question: was postmodern theory significantly influenced by late antique literature (taken as a whole)? To what extent was the creative revisitation of certain late antique authors a key element in the forging of postmodernism? Which aspects of late antique culture might have inspired the founders of contemporary theory in their crusade against the fallacies of modernity?

The introduction to this volume addresses three main issues. First, it provides a critical a reas... more The introduction to this volume addresses three main issues. First, it provides a critical a reassessment of the discipline of late antique studies, going back to its very foundations and revealing its historical, cultural and political biases. Secondly, it presents and discusses the aesthetic/poetic paradigm of late antique literature and art proposed by the editors, thus setting forth the conceptual frame underlying the whole volume. To this end, notions like metaliterary twist, hybridization, poetics of the uncommon, culture of spolia, appropriationism, era of interpretation, cumulative aesthetics, poetics of the fragment/detail, etc. are briefly explained and discussed with the aid a number of representative examples. Last but not least, it explores the intriguing topicality of late antique culture in its problematic relationship to postmodern world. As usual in these pieces, the introduction also presents and justifies the volume’s aim and structure, as well as the main topics discussed by the different contributors.

This chapter identifies a typically late antique phenomenon: the emergence of a pervasive “poetic... more This chapter identifies a typically late antique phenomenon: the emergence of a pervasive “poetics of silence”, involving a metaliterary problematization of language and representation. This phenomenon, reminiscent of the postmodern “linguistic turn”, is not restricted to the field of literature, but can be defined as omnipresent in late antique culture, underlying Augustine’s semiotics, Evagrius Ponticus’ hesychasm, Gregory of Nyssa’s apophatic theology or Pseudo-Dionysius’ negative mysticism. The chapter focuses on the different ways in which this problem (embodied in the metaphor of silence) is tackled by several authors: Sidonius Apollinaris, Fulgentius, Augustine of Hippo, Ausonius, Rutilus Namatianus and the anonymous writer of the Peruigilium Veneris. At times, silence is depicted as the haven of tranquillity which enables literary creation; at other times, it is a threat of dissolution hovering over the fragility of the poet’s work; most often, it is the deep, ultimately unknowable reality beyond the murmuring of words. Despite this variety, there is something common to all these authors: their problematizing approach to human language and their inner distrust of the classical idea of representation, teetering on the brink of collapse amidst the crisis of certainties that shook the very foundations of late antique society.

This paper aims to reinterpret Ausonius’ Mosella as a complex and many-layered depiction of a sui... more This paper aims to reinterpret Ausonius’ Mosella as a complex and many-layered depiction of a sui generis epiphanic experience, ultimately triggered by an unmediated encounter with nature. This sudden “revelation”, be it real or merely an artful literary device, did not only provide Ausonius with a deeper insight into the world around him, but also raised many epistemological issues on the limits of human knowledge and the (in)ability of language to convey reality. Both aspects —the poetical rendering of a non-discursive quasi-mystical experience and the epistemological and philosophical reflections it brings about— pervade the whole of the poem and are absolutely central to an in-depth understanding of it very raison d’être. To this end, the paper carefully analyses the metaphorical implications of the subject of the river, simultaneously conceived as a problematic imago Imperii (i.e., in its political dimension) and as speculum mundi (i.e., in its epistemological one). At the same time, it explores the poem’s hyper- and inter-textual construction, based on a sustained and substantial dialogue with a wide range of texts: the sixth book of the Aeneid, Plato’s myth of the Cave, Plotinus’ Enneads, the stories of Er, Narcissus and Ulysses (as transmitted by Plato, Ovid and Homer), the Pythagorean symbola and even the Pauline Epistles.

This chapter aims to highlight the conceptual dimension of Optatian’s poetry. It does so by rethi... more This chapter aims to highlight the conceptual dimension of Optatian’s poetry. It does so by rethinking the works of Optatian from two perspectives: first, that of twentieth-century conceptual art (above all works by Smithson, Graham, Kosuth, Darboven and Opałka); and second, with reference to Borges’ writings. This novel approach can not only encourage a fruitful and unprejudiced dialogue with our own postmodern society, but still more importantly also highlight certain aspects of Optatian’s work which are directly related to the profound philosophical, cultural and religious transformations which forged the innermost substratum of late antiquity. Thus, Optatian’s ‘conceptual poetry’ can be seen to give form to many of the great aesthetic, philosophic and cultural trends of his age: the metaliterary twist of late-antique literature (problematising the notions of language and representation), Gregory of Nyssa’s theory of language, Augustine’s semiotics, apophatic mysticism, the epochal obsession with the ideas of time, infinity and eternity, the new theology of Incarnation, the aesthetic vindication of openness and multiplicity, etc.

El binomio escepticismo y religión, tan manoseado a lo largo de los siglos, parece remitirnos a d... more El binomio escepticismo y religión, tan manoseado a lo largo de los siglos, parece remitirnos a dos polaridades dicotómicamente enfrentadas y mutuamente excluyentes. Este breve artículo plantea, sin embargo, una pregunta esencial, casi propedéutica : ¿ es posible reconciliar de algún modo los dos términos de dicha oposición ? ¿ Existe una síntesis que supere y a la vez englobe la aparente fractura entre la tesis de la religión y la antítesis del escepticismo ? ¿ Existe, en definitiva, algo así como un « escepticismo religioso » o una « religiosidad escéptica », capaz de disolver las aporías que separan ambos polos, acaso artificialmente enfrentados ? Este trabajo tratará de dilucidar hasta qué punto la teología negativa o apofática esbozada desde los albores mismos del cristianismo y extensamente desarrollada por los llamados padres de la Iglesia puede caracterizarse con todo rigor como una modalidad cristiana de escepticismo epistemológico. Nuestro análisis tomará como referencia la obra de Gregorio de Nisa (c. 335-post 394), uno de los pensadores más originales y lúcidos de la Antigüedad tardía 1 .

This paper aims to reassess Peter Greenaway’s filmography, in particular his acclaimed 1996 motio... more This paper aims to reassess Peter Greenaway’s filmography, in particular his acclaimed 1996 motion picture The Pillow Book, as a lucid reflection on the postmodern problem of textualized identities. By means of a thorough analysis of the sophisticated narrative, intertextual and aesthetical devices used in this film, this study identifies and interprets for the first time some particularly relevant visual clues, which give proof of a surprising depth and consistency as
cinematic metaphors.

This paper analyzes the poem In refectorio (CPL 1087) by Martin of Braga (c. 515-579 AD) from a p... more This paper analyzes the poem In refectorio (CPL 1087) by Martin of Braga (c. 515-579 AD) from a philological, literary and aesthetic point of view. This short piece has a striking peculiarity: almost 8 of its 10 verses are taken unchanged from Sidonius Apollinaris’ carm. 17, written around one century before. The few «original» passages combine several Sidonian terms (borrowed from the same poem) with strong intertextual echos of Sedulius’ Carmen paschale (CPL 1447). This study explores the meaning of such an unusual modus operandi, surprisingly similar to that of postmodern ready-mades.

This paper aims to analyse the only extant literary testimony of the first Lyon cathedral, a rema... more This paper aims to analyse the only extant literary testimony of the first Lyon cathedral, a remarkable early Christian building, whose exiguous remains still lie under today’s Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste-et-Saint-Étienne. The text is a detailed poetic ekphrasis of the temple, composed around 469 A. D. by the sophisticate Gallo-Roman writer Sidonius Apollinaris. These verses were commissioned, moreover, to be visually displayed on the apse of the church, as part of an extensive decorative programme carefully designed by Patiens (the bishop of Lyon). This paper undertakes an exhaustive literary analysis of the piece, which is seen as a perfect exponent of late antique aesthetic hybridization. To do so, it introduces some interesting theoretical considerations, such us the distinction between intra- and inter-systemic hybridizations –based to a great extent on Even-Zohar’s influential polysystem theory. As for the results, on the one hand, this work contributes to the precarious archaeological evidence of the lost temple a deep study of the sole literary source describing it, providing an essential help for the reconstruction of its shape, history and purpose. On the other hand, it essays a new approach to one of the most outstanding aesthetic features of Late Antiquity: the ekphrasis, which is now interestingly contextualized within the broader cultural pattern of hybridization.

E L sofisticado Griphus ternarii numeri 1 de Ausonio sigue siendo, aun hoy, un enigma por descifr... more E L sofisticado Griphus ternarii numeri 1 de Ausonio sigue siendo, aun hoy, un enigma por descifrar. Tal vez la rebuscada oscuridad de la pieza y su expresa voluntad de meter en aprietos al sufrido lector potencial hayan disuadido a los investigadores modernos de ocuparse de ella. A esa desalentadora vocación críptica se une la creencia -tan extendida como fomentada por su propio autor-de que el poema no es más que un puro juego erudito, un pasatiempo de sobremesa que no merece un intento serio de interpretación literaria. Sea por una u otra causa, en los últimos veinte años no ha salido a la luz ni una sola comunicación sobre el Griphus, lo que no deja de contrastar con el creciente interés que su autor despierta en la crítica contemporánea y el considerable número de monografías que se le dedican. Por otro lado, los escasísimos artículos existentes sobre dicha pieza, casi siempre muy breves y ya antiguos, eluden por regla general todo intento exegético globalizador, centrándose en aclarar el sentido de alguna de las muchas referencias eruditas presentes en uno o dos versos 2 .

The author reviews of the book: Decimi Magni Ausonii Ludus septem sapientum. Introduzione, testo,... more The author reviews of the book: Decimi Magni Ausonii Ludus septem sapientum. Introduzione, testo, traduzione e commento a cura di Elena Cazzuffi, Hildesheim-Zürich-New York, Olms, 2014.

The aim of this international conference is to bring together experts in the various literary tra... more The aim of this international conference is to bring together experts in the various literary traditions that flourished in the multicultural and polycentric scene of the 4 th -century Roman Empire (whether in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac or Coptic) to explore and collectively rethink the creative ways in which they intertwine, dialogue, respond to, and even oppose one another. The term 'literatures' -in plural, as mentioned in the title -will be understood as broadly as possible as any written production (in the spirit of Even-Zohar's polysystem theory). This general framework allows for a plethora of possible themes and approaches, such as:

The fifth annual conference of the International Society for Late Antique Literary Studies (ISLAL... more The fifth annual conference of the International Society for Late Antique Literary Studies (ISLALS) will convene at the University of Salamanca (Spain) on October 6–7, 2017, following the successful meetings in the USA (Brown 2013, Boston 2014, Bryn Mawr and Haverford 2016) and the UK (Oxford 2015). Under the motto “Literature squared”, this year’s conference will cover a wide range of topics directly related to the general idea of literature speaking of, commenting on, or contrasting with, literature itself: from metaliterary prooemia and self-referential pieces/passages, to Christian and pagan exegesis (commentaries, metatexts, paratexts, allegorical re-readings, rhetorical treatises, hermeneutics, etc), via all kind of self-aware “derivative” genres (such as centos, epitomes, translations, paraphrases, etc). Intertextual dialogues will be also taken into consideration, provided that they focus on strictly (meta-)literary issues. Finally, special attention will be paid to the study of the late antique philosophical inquiries on the ideas of fictionality, language, representation and literature.