
The city of Rome is built not only of bricks and marble but also of the words of its writers. For the ancient inhabitant or visitor, the buildings of Rome, the public spaces of the city, were crowded with meanings and associations. These meanings were generated partly through activities associated with particular places, but Rome also took on meanings from literature written about the city: stories of its foundation, praise of its splendid buildings, laments composed by those obliged to leave it. Ancient writers made use of the city to explore the complexities of Roman history, power and identity.’ This abstract of Catherine Edwards’ monograph (1996) ‘Writing Rome’ will be the point of departure for this course, that aims at mapping and analyzing aspects of Rome’s resonance in literature and the literary resonance of Rome. However, instead of focusing on ancient Rome solely, we consider Edwards’ words to be true for all periods of Roman history, up until the present, as well as for other cities or empires that have built their identity in relation to Rome. Therefore our literary corpus, that we will examine in interaction with the city’s spaces and monuments, will range from texts by Virgil and Juvenal, Alcuin and Petrarch, Montaigne and Goethe, to Igiaba Scego and Jhumpa Lahiri. We will use a variety of literary and classical reception approaches to explore which literary, political or religious parameters determine how ancient stock images of Rome are appropriated or contested in later times. Ultimately we will consider what this teaches us about the development of the idea of ‘eternal’ Rome and what is left of it today. Primary literature will be made available – as much as possible – in translation.
We explicitly encourage students who have no previous training in literary studies, but are invested in the topic, to also apply.
More information and registration on this webpage.