The Anxieties of Pliny the Younger

By Stanley E. Hoffer

Book Overview

This book provides a new understanding of Pliny's letters by combining historical analysis of the social pressures that shape Pliny's authorial pose with close literary analysis of the letters themselves. It demonstrates how ruling-class ideology is disseminated and how it shapes the literary persona and personal identity of a ruling-class member. The powerful heuristic tool of examining the interplay between confidence and anxieties in the letters will help restore Pliny's relatively neglected masterpiece to a more prominent place in undergraduate Latin and Roman Civilization courses.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0788505653
• ISBN13: 9780788505652
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.2"