Creative Imitation and Latin Literature

The poets and prose-writers of Greece and Rome were acutely conscious of their literary heritage. They expressed this consciousness in the regularity with which, in their writings, they imitated and alluded to the great authors who had preceded them. Such imitation was generally not regarded as plagiarism but as essential to the creation of a new literary work: imitating one’s predecessors was in no way incompatible with originality or progress. These views were not peculiar to the writers of Greece and Rome but were adopted by many others who have written in the ‘classical tradition’ right up to modern times. Creative Imitation and Latin Literature is an exploration of this concept of imitatio. The contributors analyse selected passages from various authors - Greek, Latin and English - in order to demonstrate both how Latin authors created new works of art by imitating earlier passages of literature (sometimes resorting even to self-imitation) and how English poets accomplished the same task by imitating passages of Latin literature. Quality and Pleasure in Latin Poetry, edited by Tony Woodman and David West and published by C.U.P. in 1974, was welcomed as a model of Latin literary-critical techniques. The contributors to this volume have employed similar methods, all Greek is accompanied by translation, and the book should be read by everyone interested in classical literature and in its influence on English writers.