Propertius 3.20 is a poem that has received relatively little critical attention for its merits as a poem or its relationship to the poets larger poetic project and to the turbulent era in which it was written. Here, the poem is placed into its literary and cultural context and subjected to a gendered reading influenced by modern feminist theory. Propertius 3.20 uses the language of fidelity and contracts that was traditionally associated with solemn legal ceremonies and agreements in his depiction of a socially illegitimate relationship between a lover and his mistress. The destabilization of relationships caused by the application of this language to the demimonde leads to a problematization of the gender roles of the actors in the relationships. Propertius 3.20 raises issues relevant to the construction of gender in the Propertian corpus and the crisis of masculinity triggered by the rise of Augustus.

Propertius 3.20 is a poem that has received relatively little critical attention for its merits as a poem or its relationship to the poets larger poetic project and to the turbulent era in which it was written. Here, the poem is placed into its literary and cultural context and subjected to a gendered reading influenced by modern feminist theory. Propertius 3.20 uses the language of fidelity and contracts that was traditionally associated with solemn legal ceremonies and agreements in his depiction of a socially illegitimate relationship between a lover and his mistress. The destabilization of relationships caused by the application of this language to the demimonde leads to a problematization of the gender roles of the actors in the relationships. Propertius 3.20 raises issues relevant to the construction of gender in the Propertian corpus and the crisis of masculinity triggered by the rise of Augustus.

In this study, I have analyzed the poems from the Corpus Sulpicianum (3.8–3.18) as the creation of a single author, Sulpicia. My argument in favour of the uniformity of the cycle is based on the consistency of the authorial persona, poetic concerns, and author-specific blending of some elegiac tropes. Through a metaliterary analysis of the poems, an authorial identity emerges based on the trope of the docta puella. Unlike the doctae puellae of other Roman elegists who are constructed predominantly as recipients of male-authored poetry, Sulpicia through her doctrina enhances her persona as a creatrix of poetry. In the opening poems 3.8 and 3.13, for example, Sulpicia constructs her body as part of her literary program, while also developing her persona of elegiac lover. I also show how Sulpicia’s literary concerns arise in her preoccupation with literary fama, for which Sulpicia introduces an image that reflects a creative and maternal dimension, and which diverges from the predominant elegiac tradition. In most of the poems of the remaining cycle (3.9, 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12), not only does Sulpicia represent her persona consistently as a docta poeta, but she also includes amor mutuus and servitium aequum as part of her other poetic materia. From this perspective, I argue, Sulpicia again differs drastically from the rest of elegiac tradition, by considering the reciprocity of feelings to be the base of her valuable poetic discourse. The absence of mutuality, in fact, is also reflected in the exhaustion of both her body and her literary corpus in 3.16 and 3.17. / Graduate / 2023-01-12

Cette thèse porte sur la renaissance de l’élégie latine à l’ère humaniste, au début du XVe siècle, à Sienne. Giovanni Marrasio compose alors le premier recueil d’élégies en langue latine de la Renaissance, l’Angelinetum, d’inspiration amoureuse, auxquels s’ajoutent de nombreux poèmes variés, ses carmina varia. Avant lui, ce genre n’avait pas retrouvé d’expression depuis plusieurs siècles. L’œuvre du poète, très variée dans ses thèmes et dans ses sujets, trouve son unité dans l’utilisation exclusive du distique élégiaque. Cela conduit à s’interroger sur la conception de l’élégie latine que Marrasio illustre : s’il se réapproprie de nombreux thèmes et de nombreuses topiques caractéristiques des élégies antiques, il intègre dans sa poésie plusieurs héritages littéraires d’époques ultérieures. Tous ces emprunts sont savamment fondus dans une poésie originale au gré d’une imitation habilement pensée. Les modalités de cette imitation sont analysées dans toute leur variété : la réminiscence littéraire s’exprime ainsi par l’allusion, la citation et la traduction. L’analyse de l’imitation marrasienne permet également d’évaluer les nouveaux apports du poète au genre élégiaque, notamment par l’intégration de thèmes pétrarquistes et par le rapprochement de l’élégie et de l’épigramme. Marrasio participe, en tant que lettré, à certains débats littéraires de son temps, tels l’inspiration ou la valeur de la poésie, qui trouvent dans ses poèmes, des illustrations inédites, repérables grâce à une pratique métapoétique de l’écriture. Marrasio se révèle à la fois un passeur et un novateur dans la renaissance du genre élégiaque. / This thesis deals with the renaissance of the Latin elegy in the humanist era, at the beginning of the 15th century, in Siena, when Giovanni Marrasio composed the first collection of elegies in Renaissance Latin, Angelinetum, with love as its inspiration, in addition to numerous diverse poems, his carmina varia. This style of expression had not been in use for several centuries prior to this. The exclusive use of the elegiac distich lends unity to the wide range of themes and subjects in the poet's work. This leads one to ponder the conception of the Latin elegy as illustrated by Marrasio : if he reappropriates many themes and topics characteristic of ancient elegies, he integrates several literary legacies from various earlier periods in his poetry. All these borrowings are skillfully combined into original poetry by means of clever purposeful imitation. The methods of this imitation are analysed in full: literary influence is thus expressed by allusion, quotation and translation. The analysis of Marrasian imitation also allows the poet's new contributions to the elegiac genre to be evaluated, in particular his use of Petrarchist themes and combination of the elegy and the epigram. As a man of letters, Marrasio took part, in certain literary debates of his time, on topics such as inspiration or the value of poetry, which find novel expression in his poems, identifiable thanks to a metapoetic writing style. Marrasio turns out to be both an imitator and an innovator in the renaissance of the elegiac genre.

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This thesis examines the hair imagery that runs through the works of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. Comparative analysis of the elegists’ approaches to the motif, with particular emphasis on determining where and how each deviates from the cultural assumptions and literary tradition attached to each image, sheds light on the character and purposes of elegy as a genre, as well as on the individual aims and innovations of each poet. The Introduction provides some background on sociological approaches to the study of hair, and considers the reasons why hair imagery should have such a prominent presence in elegy. Chapter 1 focuses on the elegists’ engagement with the idea of cultus (‘cultivation’), and their manipulation of the connotations traditionally attached to elaborate hairstyles, of sophistication on the one hand, and immorality on the other, to suit an elegiac context. Chapter 2 looks at how the complexities of the power relationship between the lover and his mistress play out in references to violent hair-pulling. Chapter 3 focuses on the sometimes positively and sometimes negatively spun image of grey-haired lovers, as a reflection of the lover-poet’s own contradictory wishes for his relationship with his mistress; it also considers grey hair as a symbol of physical mortality, as contrasted with poetic immortality. Chapter 4 examines the use of images of loose hair (especially images of dishevelled mourning) to suggest connotations ranging from the erotic to the pathetic, and focuses on the effects the elegists achieve by using a single image to communicate multiple implications. The Conclusion considers the ‘afterlife’ of elegiac hair imagery: the influence that their approaches had on later authors’ handling of similar images.

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