Concentus ex dissonis? Aesthetics of Late Latin literary culture in Macrobius, the commentators of Virgil, and the Grammatici Latini

• Applicant: Dr. Leon Schmieder
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 504319915

Late Antique Latin literary culture can be characterised as a complex discursive matrix. It establishes, in essence, a multi-layered communication between author and reader, comprising questions of textuality and materiality, ambiguity and exegesis, and, most importantly, that of authorship and readership. The self-reflexivity of Late Antique texts is an integral part of this communication, which has been shown recently for poetry, but has been mostly neglected as far as prose authors are concerned. This desideratum presents itself as all the more pressing in the context of metaliterary texts, which due to their ostensible pragmatics (didaxis, comment, and matters of linguistic correctness) have not been examined concerning their intrinsic literary aesthetics. The proposed project’s aim is to analyse Macrobius’ Saturnalia, the Late Antique commentators of Virgil, and the Grammatici Latini from the perspective of literary studies in order to investigate the texts’ aesthetics and their corresponding aestheticization of Late Antique literary communication. It therefore serves as a contribution to our understanding of their cultural context at the turn of the 5th century.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Host: Professor Dr. Ulrich Eigler