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When we think of Roman Poetry, the names most likely to come to mind are Vergil, Horace, and Ovid, who flourished during the age of Augustus. The genius of Imperial poets such as Juvenal, Martial, and Statius is now generally recognized, but the final years of the Roman Empire are not normally associated with poetic achievement. Recently, however, classical scholars have begun reassessing a number of poets from Late Antiquity—names such as Ausonius, Claudian, and Prudentius—understanding them as artists of considerable talent and influence. In The Space That Remains, Aaron Pelttari offers the first systematic study of these fourth-century poets since Michael Robert's foundational The Jeweled Style (Cornell, 1989). It is the first to give equal attention to both Christian and Pagan poetry and the first to take seriously the issue of readership.Like the Roman Empire, Latin literature was in a state of flux during the fourth century. As Pelttari shows, the period marked a turn towards forms of writing that privilege the reader's active involvement in shaping the meaning of the text. In the poetry of Ausonius, Claudian, and Prudentius we can see the increasing importance of distinctions between old and new, ancient and modern, forgotten and remembered. The strange traditionalism and verbalism of the day often concealed a desire for immediacy and presence. We can see these changes most clearly in the expectations placed upon readers. The space that remains is the space that the reader comes to inhabit, as would increasingly become the case in the literature of the Latin Middle Ages.
Aaron Pelttari is a Chancellor's Fellow in the Department of Classics at the University of Edinburgh.
"The analysis itself is sharp and to the point, with each passage deftly handled to serve its point. The conclusions are thought-provoking and do not seem beyond the bounds of the analysis.... This is an excellent book, and, given the slow but steady improvement of the reputation of the late antique Latin poetry.... is hopefully destined to play a central role in any future discussion of Latin poetry, whether late antique or not."
Michael Roberts, Wesleyan University, author of The Jeweled Style:
"The Space That Remains makes an important contribution to the study of late Latin poetry, specifically the study of the poetry of the fourth century. Central to Aaron Pelttari's thesis is the role of the reader, who, he argues, takes on an unusually active and creative role in the poetry of the period. Pelttari's discussion of allusion strikes me as particularly valuable in this regard."
Bret Mulligan, Haverford College:
"Pelttari's project is thought-provoking, his reading of late antique poetry usually perspicacious and not rarely invigorating. The Space that Remains will be fundamental to future discussions of Latin textuality, compositional practices and the horizons of readers' expectations in Late Antiquity.... It is testament to Pelttari's lucid style, verve and insight that this book makes his readers better able to undertake the difficult work of explicating late antique poetry and this reader hopeful that more is to come from Pelttari."
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