Civil and fraternal strife: The Theban theme from Statius to “King Lear”
Abstract
Because of the dominance of formalist criticism within epic scholarship, few critics have attempted to challenge the assumption that epic as a genre acts as a vehicle for patriotic rhetoric. But late classical and early modern epic poets themselves have revealed through their attention to the darker side of nation formation that the use of the epic genre does not necessarily signal a poet's jingoism. My dissertation reveals this discrepancy between the critical and the poetic texts by investigating the significance of the narrative theme of civil strife to Renaissance epic. To establish my argument, I use a first-century Roman epic, Statius' Thebaid, to demonstrate the continuity of this theme among post-Virgilian western epics. I contend that the works that follow Statius' example convey the idea that civil war in its simplest, most stripped down form is little more than sibling rivalry, from which grows the political corruption that embroils whole nations. The recognition of the prevalence of fraternal strife in these works therefore suggests the possibility that epic criticizes rather than valorizes war as a means of nationalistic advancement.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Ross, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Comparative literature|Classical studies|British and Irish literature|Theater
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.