A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / All the poems of Catullus and Tibullus and the first three books of Horace's Odes
are investigated tor structures of parallelism and inverse paralelism (chiasmus) and
thus the extent to which these devices were used is determined. Such structures are
demonstrated for the first time for several poems. Sometimes additions or
modifications are made to the structural analyses of other scholars, and sometimes
their findings are confirmed. The notion that inverse parallelism was seldom used by
Roman authors is dispelled. The freedom with which these devices were used,
resulting in a great variety of deviations from strictly symmetrical structures, is
demonstrated Both common and idiosyncratic features in the use of the devices by
the three authors are shown. Several poems of each author are discussed to illustrate
that the demonstration of a structure of parallelism or inverse parallelism is in itself
an interpretative act, which can at the same time serve as a basis for further
interpretation. In particular it is shown that structures of inverse parallelism often, if
not always, iconically reflect the meaning of the poem (hence the title of the thesis)
This ability or structures of inverse parallelism to reflect the meaning of the poem
may partly account for the fact that they are used more frequently than are structures
of parallelism. In the poems discussed structures of inverse parallelism iconically
reflect the ideas of reversal, cyclical movement, non-progression/deadlock, balance
and/or contrast and enclosure, as well as combinations of the above, such as a spiral
(both progression and non-progression) or the combination of reversal and nonprogression.
Continuity between the structural methods of Greek and Roman authors
is demonstrated, and a theoretical framework is provided, which answers the
questions how such structures can be determined, and what purposes, both practical
and poetic, they serve. A literary-critical awareness of inverse parallelism in
Antiquity is demonstrated. St. Augustine, especially, has a fairly developed
theoretical frame of reference on the subject, in his De Genest ad Litteram / Andrew Chakane 2019
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/26633 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Van der Riet, Jacobus Werndly |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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