Dr. James Ker, Professor of Classics and Graduate Chair of Greek and Latin Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania
A Classical Studies Department Colloquium. In-person attendance at 402 Cohen. Coffee and cookies 30 minutes beforehand, 2nd floor lounge.
Abstract
“In Consolatio ad Marciam Seneca the Younger intervenes simultaneously in the life of a grieving mother and in Rome’s literary, social, and political space. As a ‘first’, this earliest surviving Senecan work initiates some tactics that would recur later in Seneca’s career, while some of its tactics are unique to the author’s positionality as a new senator creatively navigating the times of Gaius/Caligula. This talk situates Ad Marciam in its historical context and the discourse of literary consolation, sketches the main narrative arcs through which Marcia’s healing is mediated, and then explores two key sentences from the opening pages that communicate the consoler’s therapeutic and social ambitions.”