Intertextuality in Pliny's Epistles

Focusing on intertextuality, this book investigates Pliny the Younger's engagement with other authors and genres in his Epistles.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the artistry of Pliny's Epistles and, more broadly, in Latin prose intertextuality, in the generic enrichment of Latin epistolography and in the literary and cultural interactions of the Imperial period. The book also serves as an advanced introduction to Latin prose poetics.Pliny's Epistles are full of literary artistry. This volume of essays by an impressive international team of scholars showcases this by exploring the intertextual, interdiscursive and also intermedial character of the collection. It provides a contribution to the recent scholarly interest in Latin prose intertextuality and in the literary and cultural interactions of the Imperial period. Focusing on the whole collection as well as on single books and selected letters, it investigates Pliny's strategies of incorporating literary models and genres into his epistolary oeuvre, thus creating a kind of 'super-genre' himself. In addition to displaying Pliny's literary techniques, the volume also serves as an advanced introduction to Latin prose poetics.