A Cockney Catullus: The Reception of Catullus in Romantic Britain, 1795-1821

ISBN-13: 9780198744887 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 352 str.

Henry Stead

Opis

Catullus, one of the most Hellenizing, scandalous, and emotionally expressive of the Roman poets, burst onto the British cultural scene during the Romantic era. It was not until this socially, politically, and culturally explosive epoch, with its mania for all things Greek, that Catullus' work was first fully translated into English and played a key role in the countercultural and commercially driven classicism of the time. Previously marginalized on the traditional eighteenth-century curriculum as a charming but debauched minor love poet, Catullus was discovered as a major poetic voice in the late Georgian era by reformist emulators--especially in the so-called Cockney School--and won widespread respect. In this volume, Henry Stead pioneers a new way of understanding the key role Catullus played in shaping Romanticism by examining major literary engagements with Catullus, from John Nott of Bristol's pioneering book-length bilingual edition (1795), to George Lamb's polished verse translation (1821). He identifies the influence of Catullus' poetry in the work of numerous Romantic-era literary and political figures, including Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hunt, Canning, Brougham, and Gifford, demonstrating the degree of its cultural penetration.

Recenzje

lively and illuminating ... Although naturally of interest to students of Catullus, of his receptions in British literature and of Romanticism, this monograph will richly reward students of Latin poetry and classical receptions more generally.

O autorze

Henry Stead is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow working within the field of classical reception studies at the Open University (English and Classical Studies).