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The language of freedom and slavery in tacitus agricola

Poulsen, Aske Damtoft LU (2017) In Mnemosyne 70(5). p.834-858
Abstract

The Agricola has long been a popular object of study for the connection that it makes between the British narrative of resistance against Roman domination and the Roman narrative of resistance against imperial domination. However, no agreement has been reached on the question of how exactly the two narratives 'affect' each other. Simultaneously, while it has often been remarked that Tacitus' language is inherently metaphorical, there have been curiously few studies devoted to Tacitean metaphor. Based on the theory of conceptual metaphor promoted by George Lakoff, this article takes the metaphors of freedom and slavery that appear in the Agricola as starting point for a re-evaluation of the connection between the two narratives. This... (More)

The Agricola has long been a popular object of study for the connection that it makes between the British narrative of resistance against Roman domination and the Roman narrative of resistance against imperial domination. However, no agreement has been reached on the question of how exactly the two narratives 'affect' each other. Simultaneously, while it has often been remarked that Tacitus' language is inherently metaphorical, there have been curiously few studies devoted to Tacitean metaphor. Based on the theory of conceptual metaphor promoted by George Lakoff, this article takes the metaphors of freedom and slavery that appear in the Agricola as starting point for a re-evaluation of the connection between the two narratives. This novel approach to the text facilitates a deeper analysis of certain key passages of the text, and provides some much-needed nuance to the current scholarly debate.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Agricola, Libertas/freedom, Metaphor, Tacitus
in
Mnemosyne
volume
70
issue
5
pages
25 pages
publisher
Brill
external identifiers
  • wos:000412813200007
  • scopus:85029856087
ISSN
0026-7074
DOI
10.1163/1568525X-12342202
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
73a40375-d119-4492-9d92-1e86cb3da116
date added to LUP
2017-10-09 12:22:58
date last changed
2024-04-14 19:18:44
@article{73a40375-d119-4492-9d92-1e86cb3da116,
  abstract     = {{<p>The Agricola has long been a popular object of study for the connection that it makes between the British narrative of resistance against Roman domination and the Roman narrative of resistance against imperial domination. However, no agreement has been reached on the question of how exactly the two narratives 'affect' each other. Simultaneously, while it has often been remarked that Tacitus' language is inherently metaphorical, there have been curiously few studies devoted to Tacitean metaphor. Based on the theory of conceptual metaphor promoted by George Lakoff, this article takes the metaphors of freedom and slavery that appear in the Agricola as starting point for a re-evaluation of the connection between the two narratives. This novel approach to the text facilitates a deeper analysis of certain key passages of the text, and provides some much-needed nuance to the current scholarly debate.</p>}},
  author       = {{Poulsen, Aske Damtoft}},
  issn         = {{0026-7074}},
  keywords     = {{Agricola; Libertas/freedom; Metaphor; Tacitus}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{834--858}},
  publisher    = {{Brill}},
  series       = {{Mnemosyne}},
  title        = {{The language of freedom and slavery in tacitus agricola}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12342202}},
  doi          = {{10.1163/1568525X-12342202}},
  volume       = {{70}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}