Week III
Throughout this week, I’ve been making steady progress and increasing my pace. I also used the long weekend to make up for my inconsistent schedule, which is still a struggle for me. While I am beginning to balance research and practice with translation, I could not meet my goal of 30 pages if I took more regular breaks to work on other aspects of this project. But although 30 is ideal, I will probably fall short of my target at my current rate anyway, so I’ll try broadening my focus more next week.
I’ve been thinking about a few different questions that might offer useful context for The Annals. I’m very curious about reading in general in Ancient Rome. I wonder, how were books made and distributed? Was reading a pastime or mostly for business and education? And what are the implications of this regarding Tacitus’ audience? I did a web search for "literacy in Ancient Rome" in order to locate some potential general sources, but I found different answers from each one. The Oxford Classical Dictionary asserts that the literacy rate in antiquity- both Greek and Roman- was at the most 20-30% in urban, Hellenized areas, and combined with our existing knowledge about the differences between Greek and Roman education (Greeks viewing literacy, philosophy, and rhetoric as intrinsically worthwhile and means of obtaining virtue, versus the Roman view that schooling is preparation for careers in business or public service) suggests to me that literacy was not a native Roman value and relatively few people would read for pleasure. Now that I'm thinking about it, could this be reflected in the variety of Latin literature that we have and study today? While there are many celebrated poets who wrote in Latin, I haven't heard of many other kinds of creative writing. We know that there were novels and fictional plays in Rome, but in my experience, they tend to be less celebrated than (and in any case, derivative of) earlier Greek authors. By contrast, while studying Latin, I have come across much more rhetorical, political, and historical texts and authors. However, I've never taken a formal class or had any practical experience in this field, so my perception is still based on a limited range of sources. I'll use the weekend to get a head start on this research, and divide my time more evenly over the week so I can complete grammar review that will hopefully speed up my process.
As for what I did over the last five days, I continued my usual routine of spending a few hours in the morning and some in the evening working by myself. Luckily, I had another chance to study with one of my friends on Thursday, and like the first time, it was a fun way to change my work habits. I wonder if just being in a different environment is helpful for me- I might try finding an open coffee shop on my own to study for a few hours.
For a tangential cultural experience, I also tried wearing a stola, a Roman dress, made from one of my sheets:
I love this post! What a great idea to wear a stola! Creative, relevant (not just for the obvious reasons but also because it has rhetorical value, centering on the experience of women in Rome--we all know the word, toga, but I'll guess that most readers won't know stola, and this is, in part, what you've begun to wonder about the time and the people: whose stories are represented? who was the audience? what was the purpose of writing? These are great questions, Eve! Increasingly, what I see happening is that you're setting a purpose for yourself by considering these questions and by setting out these generalizations (between the arts of Greece and the political rhetoric of Rome, for example). As you undertake your study of classics, you are identifying some critical questions that will guide you. I just read an interesting interview yesterday with a well known classicist. Among other things, she was talking about the shift in the questions she was asking in her own long career. She realized that she hadn't scrutinized her assumptions. I'll send you a copy of the article. I think you'll enjoy it. Rock on!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bill! I saw that article in the NYT Magazine but I haven't had the chance to read it yet- I'm looking forward to it!
DeleteEve, I love how you are immersing yourself in this work, not only translating but thinking about the culture of what was happening during these writings. I imagine your insight to find a change of scenery is a good one, and something the writers you're reading would endorse!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Blythe! It was probably one of the brighter ideas I've had recently, and a lot of fun!
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