Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs
Publication Date
Spring 4-2-2018
Abstract
This project analyzes the letters between Marcus Cornelius Fronto and his student Marcus Aurelius as works of literature, rather than merely sites for historical mining. The letters, I argue, contain carefully constructed tropes of rhetoric and feature intentional polish that serve as opportunities for discussion about the virtues of philosophy and rhetoric during the Second Sophistic. Topics of discussions between both parties range between the imagery of sleep, and intimate spaces, like bedrooms, to substantive allusions to Plato’s philosophy and his dialogue Phaedrus. By looking beyond the identification of concrete names and dates to the literary, referential, and personal world of Aurelius and Fronto’s correspondence, the reader is afforded a valuable window into the development of letter writing, rhetoric, and education in the Antonine period.
Keywords
Fronto, Marcus Aurelius, Letters, Epistolography, Education, Rhetoric
Document Type
Thesis
Language
English
Degree Name
Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
Level of Degree
Masters
Department Name
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
First Committee Member (Chair)
Osman Umurhan
Second Committee Member
Monica Cyrino
Third Committee Member
Lorenzo F. Garcia, Jr.
Recommended Citation
Keith, Sarah C.. "Negotiation and the Construction of Intimacy in the Letters between Fronto and Marcus Aurelius." (2018). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/fll_etds/128
Included in
Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, German Language and Literature Commons
