Chapter Three. Intercultural Imitation In Christian Latin Poetry As A Way To The Medieval Poetics Of Alterity

Abstract

Archaism seems to be nearly as old as Latin literature itself. It was a way to make the legacy of the past legitimize the work of the present. Though archaism’s hint of age might be a valued stylistic ornament, however, old age itself was not a virtue. Modern critics have been hardly more precise and scarcely more comfortable in defining the boundaries of the archaic. From the perspective of our own modernity, however, the ‘archaic’ label entails more dangers than advantages. Multiple periodizations, asynchronic cultural series and deep differences between the way historical ages are viewed by modern or contemporary eyes are by now a granted factum though not yet part of the collective consciousness. Probably, one of the most innovative contributions by the recent literary theories to the historiography of antique literature, is the assumption that interference among cultures can also be a criterion for literary analysis. Keywords: antique literature; archaism; Latin literature; literary theories; modern critics; old age; past