Ritual and the poetics of closure in Flavian literature:

This collection of papers responds to the question of whether a ritual at the end of a text can offer resolution and order or rather a complicated kind of closure. It reveals that ritual can bring but also can thwart closure by alluding to new beginnings. A ritual could be a perfect kind of ending b...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Roumpou, Angeliki-Nektaria 2000- (Editor)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Berlin ; Boston De Gruyter [2023]
Series:Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes Volume 147
Subjects:
Online Access:DE-1043
DE-1046
DE-858
DE-859
DE-860
DE-188
DE-473
DE-739
Volltext
Summary:This collection of papers responds to the question of whether a ritual at the end of a text can offer resolution and order or rather a complicated kind of closure. It reveals that ritual can bring but also can thwart closure by alluding to new beginnings. A ritual could be a perfect kind of ending but it hardly ever seems to be. In Flavian literature this is even more apparent because of the complicated political background under which these texts were produced. Ancient religious practices in the closing sections of Flavian texts help us create connections between endings and (new) beginnings, order and disorder, binding and loosening, structure and dissolution which reflects the structure of the Empire in Flavian Rome. Overall, this volume offers a new tool for studying literary endings through ritual, which promotes our understanding of Flavian culture and politics as well as creating a new perception of the use of religion and ritual in Flavian literature: instead of giving a sense of closure, this volume argues that ritual is a medium to increase complexity, to expose ritual actors and to project a generic riskiness of ritual actors also onto the epic actors who are acting before and mostly after a ritual scene
Physical Description:1 Online-Ressource (VIII, 252 Seiten)
ISBN:9783110770483
9783110770568
DOI:10.1515/9783110770483

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