SINE ME, LIBER, IBIS: THE POET, THE BOOK AND THE READER IN TRISTIA 1.1

摘要

Central to Ovid’s argument throughout this second book of the Tristia is the conten-ntion that one cannot read literature literally and, more specifically, that to make a ndirect correlation between an author and his work is fundamentally to misconstrue nthe nature of literature. While Ovid’s reference to his libelli here as an infelix cura nconflates his literary output with his emotional state, thus identifying his writing nwith himself, the question that Ovid is asking in these lines highlights precisely nthe problems inherent in such an equation.n2n Ovid explicitly and at length addresses nhis relationship to his poetic products in Tristia 2, of course, yet the whole of nthe Tristia shows a notable preoccupation with the poet’s relationship to his own npoems, a preoccupation underscored by the fact that these new poems must serve as nthe instrument of his communication with Rome. More than his other works, then, nthese poems should present the voice of the poet in propria persona, especially ngiven their epistolary nature.n3