Another likely enjoyable book (I started it a while ago but set it aside for more pressing matters), which relates to our current subject author:
The Politics of Latin Literature
Writing, Identity, And Empire In Ancient Rome
by Thomas N. Habinek
Here is the list of chapters:
CHAPTER ONE
Latin Literature and the Problem of Rome
CHAPTER TWO
Why Was Latin Literature Invented?
CHAPTER THREE
Cicero and the Bandits
CHAPTER FOUR
Culture Wars in the First Century B.C.E.
CHAPTER FIVE
Writing as Social Performance
CHAPTER SIX
Roman Women's Useless Knowledge
CHAPTER SEVEN
An Aristocracy of Virtue
CHAPTER EIGHT
Pannonia Domanda Est: The Construction of the Imperial Subject through Ovid's Poetry from Exile
There is a Bryn Mawr Classical Review (1999.02.04) which concludes with this paragraph:
As promised in the Introduction, the spirit of literary criticism is used throughout in a general sense, but with a refreshing precision and lack of jargon and persiflage. Densely, intricately written the compilation of the book from autonomous chapters is not only the logical means of approaching so vast and varied a topic, but also a positive factor in allowing the reader time to reflect. It is almost immaterial whether one agrees with his conclusions on contentious subjects; the great strength of the work rests greatly, though not primarily, with the enthralling possibilities revealed by Habinek's methodology.
