Literary Allusion and Cultural Poetics in Vergil's Third "Eclogue"

Among the rich variety of approaches to the study of Vergil's arte allusiva one finds at least one, quite understandable, common element-namely, an overriding concern with the text itself as the dominant locus of meaning. This is true of Professor Conte's earlier work, at any rate, as well as of those who stress the philological Alexandrian attitude towards poetic composition,2 and even of the more traditionalist school.3 Indeed, it is fair to say that in our discipline the process of literary allusion-a process read by different scholars as yielding radically divergent interpretations of individual poems-is fundamentally a process that involves the transformation of texts. This means that the process of allusion is conceived as something that the creative intelligence of the poet works, actively and deliberately, upon the relatively inert material of an existing text in order to produce meaning. For Conte, of course, the process is somewhat different: agency is located in a zone that hovers between the text itself and the readers, who are given a role that is at least equal to that of the author in the production of allusive meaning. But in all cases, I think, it is fair to say that what is at issue remains the transformation of texts. The agent of transformation may differ, but the concern with the form of the text remains paramount. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Classics This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/109 Literary Allusion and Cultural Poetics in Vergil's Third Ecloguel Among the rich variety of approaches to the study of Vergil's arte allusiva one finds at least one, quite understandable, common element-namely, an overriding concern with the text itself as the dominant locus of meaning. This is true of Professor Conte's earlier work, at any rate, as well as of those who stress the philological Alexandrian attitude towards poetic composition,2 and even of the more traditionalist school.3 Indeed, it is fair to say that in our discipline the process of literary allusion-a process read by different scholars as yielding radically divergent interpretations of individual poems-is fundamentally a process that involves the transformation of texts. This means that the process of allusion is conceived as something that the creative intelligence of the poet works, actively and deliberately, upon the relatively inert material of an existing text in order to produce meaning. For Conte, of course, the process is somewhat different: agency is located in a zone that hovers between the text itself and the readers, who are given a role that is at least equal to that of the author in the production of allusive meaning. But in all cases, I think, it is fair to say that what is at issue remains the transformation of texts. The agent of transformation may differ, but the concern with the form of the text remains paramount. The reasons for adopting such a position are clear, and require no defense. Obviously, the results achieved by those working in this particular area speak for themselves. But it remains possible to conceive of allusion rather differently: not altogether differently, but significantly so. My concern in this paper will be not the transformed text itself, nor the specific agents of its transformation, but rather the larger context within which texts are produced, reproduced, translated, interpreted, and exchanged as both material and cultural artifacts. I refer here not to the repertoire of techniques, the scholarly and interpretive aids, the categories of textual manipulation, or the individual and collective lThis paper is a slightly revised version of the one read at the Vergilian Society panel in Chicago. I have provided it with more specific textual citations than seemed appropriate to viva voce presentation, and with essential bibliographical references. In general, however, it retains its original character as a rather brief exploration of a complex topic, one that I hope to address at greater length in the near future. 21 have discussed what I consider to be the main contributions to this field-namely, those of Giangrande and his school, of Clausen, Ross, and Thomas, and of Professor Conte and his associates-in my book Vergil's Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic: The Art of Allusion in Literary History (New York and Oxford 1991) 11-24. 3see especially G.N. Knauer, Die Aeneis und Homer: Studien zur poetischen Technik Vergils mit Listen der Homerzitate in der Aeneis, Hypomnemata 7 (Gottingen 1964), with my discussion, op. cit. n. 2 above, 7-11.