In the epistles of Pliny the Younger describing his villas it is possible to recognize a rhetorical movement of comprehensive polarization aimed at presenting the villas as Edenic places where a wonderful coincidentia oppositorum is realized. Pliny’s descriptions of his suburban residences tend to take on a metaliterary character and an autobiographical value: the villas, indeed, translate in literary terms Pliny’s desire for a totality divided between public commitment and private life, between otium and negotium; on the other hand, these extremely wide and detailed descriptions allow a reader of any age to take a virtual tour of the places where Pliny’s texts were composed and to imagine the author busy with his favorite activities.
La periferia come valore: le ville di Plinio il Giovane tra realtà, retorica e metaletteratura.
Alberto Canobbio
2022-01-01
Abstract
In the epistles of Pliny the Younger describing his villas it is possible to recognize a rhetorical movement of comprehensive polarization aimed at presenting the villas as Edenic places where a wonderful coincidentia oppositorum is realized. Pliny’s descriptions of his suburban residences tend to take on a metaliterary character and an autobiographical value: the villas, indeed, translate in literary terms Pliny’s desire for a totality divided between public commitment and private life, between otium and negotium; on the other hand, these extremely wide and detailed descriptions allow a reader of any age to take a virtual tour of the places where Pliny’s texts were composed and to imagine the author busy with his favorite activities.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
