Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and the Greco-Roman Consolatory Tradition
The scholarship on the literary genre of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy (henceforth Consolatio) proposes a surprising interpretation: the Consolatio is not a consolation in spite of its title and overt goal. Typically, scholars of the consolatory genre simply note that the Consolatio shou...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2012
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| In: |
Traditio
Year: 2012, Volume: 67, Pages: 1-42 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The scholarship on the literary genre of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy (henceforth Consolatio) proposes a surprising interpretation: the Consolatio is not a consolation in spite of its title and overt goal. Typically, scholars of the consolatory genre simply note that the Consolatio should not be considered together with ancient and medieval consolations. Scholars of the Consolatio, however, offer specific reasons as to why Boethius's text is not a consolation. One is stylistic: some interpreters (Curley, Dronke, Marenbon, Pabst, Payne, Relihan) argue that the prosimetric style in which the Consolatio is written is typical of a “Menippean satire” and does not befit a consolation. The content of the Consolatio is also considered to be at odds with the consolatory genre: Boethius's text is interpreted as promising a consolation that either is not delivered (Payne, Relihan) or is only partially achieved (Marenbon). Finally, some scholars (O'Daly, Gruber, Rand, Reiss, Shanzer) hold that because the Consolatio presents features that are typical of several literary genres (i.e., Menippean satire, philosophical dialogue, exhortation to philosophy, etc.) it is impossible to classify Boethius's last work as belonging exclusively to one genre or another — the text should, thus, be regarded as an “eclectic” work. |
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| ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0362152900001318 |