Description
Book SynopsisConfronts the trope of muteness in Imperial Roman literature, arguing that this understanding of silence is incomplete. Amy Koenig shows that the Roman perception of silence was more complicated than a simple binary and that authors used voiceless characters to interrogate the concept of voicelessness in ways that would be taboo in other contexts.
Trade Review“Pulling together a dizzying array of materials and concepts from disparate fields,
The Fractured Voice is a transformative study of speech in the ancient world. Impressive scholarship supports an adroit, wholly original, and convincing argument that avoids the previous, reductive approaches to the motif of speech loss in Roman literature.”—Bartolo Natoli, author of
Silenced Voices: The Poetics of Speech in Ovid “Koenig brings a fresh perspective to the understanding of silence in the culture of the Roman empire, showing that loss of voice can unlock new possibilities of expression that allow the mute person to signify facts and feelings otherwise difficult or dangerous to communicate. Those interested in Roman literature, cultural history, and disability studies stand to learn a great deal from this book.”—Silvia Montiglio, author of
Silence in the Land of LogosTable of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Tongueless Nightingale
- Chapter 1. The Embodied Voice: Conflict and Constraint in Galen’s Writings
- Chapter 2. The Mute Goddess: Speechlessness, Divinity, and Power in Ovid’s Fasti
- Chapter 3. The Dancer’s Silence: Ovidian Myths of the Voice and Roman Pantomime
- Chapter 4. The Instrument of the Voice: Body, Mind, and Music in the “Second Sophistic” Greek Novels
- Chapter 5. Nova vox: (Re)gaining a Voice in the Ass Novels
- Epilogue: Mea lingua Christus: Muteness and Martyrdom
- Notes
- References
- Index
