Tropes and Stock Characters in Neoteric and Lyric Poetry - PowerPoint Presentation

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Tropes and Stock Characters in Neoteric and Lyric Poetry

Prop.3.23 presents us with a cast of characters whose traits are typical for Roman love poetry.

The

poet/boyfriend

, his

paramour

, and the

archetypal Roman

are all carefully constructed pieces of Propertius and Catullus’ poetic world. That these characters reoccur (and share so many traits) across poems and authors should be further encouragement to read these poems not as autobiographies of the authors, but as deliberate fiction who content is governed by convention. Slide3

‘The Love Poet’

The poet in Roman love poetry is often the speaker of the poem — hence our impulse to identify him with the real-life poet. He is consumed by his impulse to create poetry, specifically work that is

doctus

(learned),

venustus

(disarming), and

lepidus

(witty), so much so that he chooses to shun the burdens of

res

publicae

(public affairs) and

negotium

(business) in favor of a life of

otium

(leisure). He can do so because he is independently wealthy. (In these ways, the character is the poet does mirror the real-life Neoteric poet.)

He is a firm believer in his own talents (and those of his friends and supporters) and is distraught when he cannot write. In love, though, he portrays himself as at the whim of his girlfriend. In an even starker inversion of normal gender roles, he presents himself as emotionally vulnerable (

tenuis

,

mollis

, levis

), prone to rejections and the fits of jealousy and heartache that accompany it. The poet will often depict politicians, generals, businessmen (or even other non-romantic poets) as representative of qualities and values he rejects. Slide4

‘The Paramour’

The paramour exercises outsize influence over her romantic life in comparison to what the actual Roman woman could. As she would have been either a courtesan or a society woman, her dalliance with the poet would not have been her primary romantic focus, but rather an affair. (Her preference for pre-arranged meetings signals that discretion was key.) The paramour is presented as in charge of the relationship — she sets its terms, and can begin, end, or restart it. She is often portrayed as having fickle tastes, equally prone to fits of jealousy or intense passion.Slide5

‘The Archetypal Roman’

In contrast to the vulnerable, emotional, and artistic poet, the archetypal Roman represents values in direct contrast to those of the poet, including, but not limited to: an interest and preoccupation with work, money, politics, war, religion, and other civic or patriotic obligations

Unlike the poet, he usually exhibits more traditional ‘masculine’ qualities of being unemotional and primarily concerned with his status in society, work, politics, and money. He would not discuss relationships with women, much less put himself in a position in which he may be viewed as being under the control of a womanSlide6

Would you expect to read about the following things in a Roman love poem?

A poet chides his girlfriend in public.

A poet describes his anguish at suffering a bout of writer’s block.

A poet’s girlfriend calls upon him when her husband unexpectedly goes away.

A poet’s insulting a returning general celebrating a triumph.

A poet describing his breakup as “no big deal.”

Praise of a friend who has just published a small book of poems after a year in the countryside.

Nōn

Ita

verō

!

Ita

verō!

Ita verō!

Nōn

Ita

verō

!