Making a New Man
Ciceronian Self-Fashioning in the Rhetorical Works
ISBN13: 9780199267804ISBN10: 0199267804
Hardback,
400 pages
Apr 2005,
In Stock
Price:
$165.00 (06)Description
In Making a New Man John Dugan investigates how Cicero (106-43 BCE) uses his major treatises on rhetorical theory (De oratore, Brutus, and Orator) in order to construct himself as a new entity within Roman cultural life: a leader who based his authority upon intellectual, oratorical, and literary accomplishments instead of the traditional avenues for prestige such as a distinguished familial pedigree or political or military feats. Eschewing conventional Roman notions of manliness, Cicero constructed a distinctly aesthetized identity that flirts with the questionable domains of the theatre and the feminine, and thus fashioned himself as a "new man."Features
- Uncovers how Cicero fashions his identity through his works of rhetorical theory
- Borrowing techniques from gender and cultural studies, investigates aspects of Cicero's rhetorical thought that are often overlooked, including its cautious embrace of a feminized theatricality
- By showing how his works of rhetorical theory present Cicero as the ideal Roman orator, reveals Cicero's own role in his canonization within Roman literary culture
About the Author(s)
John Dugan is Assistant Professor in the Classics Department, State University of New York at Buffalo.
