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Reading and Writing Gellius: The Act of Composition in the Attic Nights

Chapman, Austin A
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1063-3560
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445341897

Abstract Details

2015, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
Here I argue that Gellius uses the loose design of his Attic Nights to interact both playfully and instructively with his reader, and that he does so in such a way that the purpose of the Nights is found to be reproductive, replicating the activities of its author (Gellius) in the minds and, ideally, the activities of its readers. To demonstrate how Gellius creates this unique author-reader relationship as the ordo of the text unfolds, I read the Nights sequentially. In close readings of three books of the Attic Nights (Books 1, 2, and 14), I explore how Gellius develops themes over the course of each book and uses those themes to articulate his relationship with the reader. In order to pick out sequences that supply meaning to a sequential reading of such an apparently disordered text, I take advantage, at least initially, of the approach of Gibson and Morello (2012) to the Letters of Pliny the Younger, where a multitude of units (epistles, in Pliny’s case) are placed so as to appear well-mixed but also create sequences in which certain patterns emerge, suggesting a loose design. Following Gibson and Morello’s model, I begin by noticing a more-or-less obvious pattern in Book 2 and “re-read” the book with that pattern in mind; through that re-reading, I discover that Gellius highlights a father-son relationship as an analogue for the relationship between himself and his reader. In Book 14, I follow a sequence, sustained through the entire book, that serves as a reflection on the nature of the miscellany-genre and on Gellius’s evolution from reader to author. Finally, returning to Book 1 to begin a re-reading of the Attic Nights as a whole, I observe how Gellius uses the structure of that book to represent a seemingly infinite expansion of knowledge.
Holt Parker, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Harold Gotoff, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Daniel Markovic, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Susan Prince, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
181 p.
Classical Studies
Aulus Gellius; Attic Nights; sequential reading

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chapman, A. A. (2015). Reading and Writing Gellius: The Act of Composition in the Attic Nights [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445341897

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chapman, Austin. Reading and Writing Gellius: The Act of Composition in the Attic Nights. 2015. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445341897.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chapman, Austin. "Reading and Writing Gellius: The Act of Composition in the Attic Nights." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445341897

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1445341897
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.