Combining the studies of modern film, traditional narratology, and Roman art, this interdisciplinary work explores the complex and highly visual techniques of Tacitus' Annales. The volume opens with a discussion of current research in narratology, as applied to Roman historians. Narratology is a helpful and insightful tool, but is often inadequate to deal with specifically visual aspects of ancient narrative. In order to illuminate Tacitus’ techniques, and to make them speak to modern readers, this book focuses on drawing and illustrating parallels between Tacitus’ historiographical methods and modern film effects.
Building on these premises, Waddell examines a wide array of Tacitus’ visual narrative devices. Tacitean examples are discussed in light of their narrative effect and purpose in the Annales, as well as the ways in which they are similar to contemporary Roman art and modern film techniques, including focalization, alignment, use of the ambiguous gaze, temporal suggestion and quick-cutting. Through this approach the modern scholar gains a deeper understanding of the many ways in which Tacitus’ Annales act upon the reader, and how his narrative technique helps to shape, guide, and deeply layer his history.
By:
Philip Waddell (University of Arizona USA) Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic Country of Publication: United Kingdom Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN:9781350191525 ISBN 10: 1350191523 Pages: 256 Publication Date:19 May 2022 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
List of Illustrations Introduction PART I: Lens and Voice Chapter 1: Focalizing Empire Chapter 2: Vox Caesaris, Vox Taciti: Imperial Alignment Chapter 3: The Directed Gaze and the Construction of Meaning PART II: Transition and Connection Chapter 4: Shadows Over Rome: Temporal Suggestion Chapter 5: Eloquent Collisions: The Quick-Cut Works Cited Index Locorum General Index
Philip Waddell is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Arizona, USA.
Reviews for Tacitean Visual Narrative
The book offers good ideas for how to talk about Tacitus’ rhetoric in the twenty-first century. * The Classical Review *