In our increasingly fragmented world, finding a balance between the public realm of city and politics and the private realm of family, intimate relationships, and the raising of children is not an easy task. When faced with a choice between action in the public world and care for the concerns of the private, we, like Vergil's Aeneas, are often torn between whether to stay or to go. In this new reading of the Aeneid, Susan Ford Wiltshire provides a historical perspective for the current debate over the public/private ...
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In our increasingly fragmented world, finding a balance between the public realm of city and politics and the private realm of family, intimate relationships, and the raising of children is not an easy task. When faced with a choice between action in the public world and care for the concerns of the private, we, like Vergil's Aeneas, are often torn between whether to stay or to go. In this new reading of the Aeneid, Susan Ford Wiltshire provides a historical perspective for the current debate over the public/private dilemma. It is Wiltshire's contention that our present concern over this issue was Vergil's own. Wiltshire traces the split between public and private back to the origins of bureaucracy in the Roman Empire. She shows that Vergil, although loyal to the new Roman state, was acutely aware of the costs of empire: mothers grieve throughout the Aeneid, home seems far away, friends are missed, intimate forms of love are almost always defeated. And so Vergil developed strategies for reconciling the public and private: characters in this epic act in the public realm while maintaining self-distance, offer hospitality to strangers, perform sustained hard work, and develop a new pietas that is both public and private. Through these means, Wiltshire argues, Vergil thought to strengthen the fragile alliance of public and private spheres, an alliance on which the well-being of both individuals and societies depends. This book will be of interest to classical scholars, students of political theory, the history of ideas, and women's studies.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1989. 1st. Hardcover. Cloth, dj. Octavo. xiii & 172 pp. Moderate shelf wear and scuffing to boards. Altogether a copy in Very Good condition. Very Good. (Subject: Ancient, Roman Literature).
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Seller's Description:
VG/VG (Ex-library with stamps and labels on spine, inside front and rear covers, ffep and block. ) Brown cloth boards with gilt spine lettering, green dj with white lettering and bw illustration; mylar cover; xii, 172 pp. Contents: Public, private, and the problem of time--Grieving mothers and the costs of attachment--Self-distancing and the capacity for action--Where is home? --Hospitality and the transformation of realms--Amor in the Aeneid--Bridging public and private: Labor and Pietas. Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-155) and indexes.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 0870236504. Ex-library copy with usual stamps, call numbers and pocket.; 0.8 x 8.7 x 5.8 Inches; 172 pages; In this new reading of the Aeneid, Wiltshire provides a historical perspective for the current debate over the public/private dilemma. Wiltshire traces the split between public and private back to the origins of bureaucracy in the Roman Empire...
