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Virgil's Map Summary

Virgil's Map: Geography, Empire, and the Georgics by Dr Charlie Kerrigan (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

Virgil's Georgics depicts the world and its peoples in great detail, but this geographical interest has received little detailed scholarly attention. Hundreds of years later, readers in the British empire used the poem to reflect upon their travels in acts of imagination no less political than Virgil's own. Virgil's Map combines a comprehensive survey of the literary, economic, and political geography of the Georgics with a case study of its British imperial reception c. 1840-1930. Part One charts the poem's geographical interests in relation to Roman power in and beyond the Mediterranean; shifting readers' attention away from Rome, it explores how the Georgics can draw attention to alternative, non-Roman histories. Part Two examines how British travellers quoted directly from the poem to describe peoples and places across the world, at times equating the colonial subjects of European empires to the 'happy farmers' of Virgil's poem, perceived to be unaware, and in need, of the blessings of colonial rule. Drawing attention to the depoliticization of the poem in scholarly discourse, and using newly discovered archival material, this interdisciplinary work seeks to re-politicize both the poem and its history in service of a decolonizing pedagogy. Its unique dual focus allows for an extended exploration, not just of geography and empire, but of Europe's long relationship with the wider world.

Virgil's Map Reviews

A very useful discussion of the socio-political and economic importance to the metropole of the myriad places and peoples of (or potentially of) the Roman empire referenced by the Georgics, and a good compendium of more modern references to the Georgics in the context of British imperialism during the years 1840 to 1930. * The Classical Review *
Kerrigan makes a powerful case for the repoliticization of the Georgics, a text that has been over-aestheticized in its reception from the time of Joseph Addison onwards. He proposes a decolonializing reading as a complement to existing interpretations and offers a brilliant pedagogic model for classicists to pursue. -- Susanna Braund, Professor of Latin Poetry and its Reception, University of British Columbia, Canada

About Dr Charlie Kerrigan (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

Charlie Kerrigan is a Research Fellow in Classics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Part One: Rome and the Roman empire, 29 BCE 1. The World and its Peoples 2. Provincializing Rome 3. Civil War 4. 'All Italy' Part Two: Britain and the British empire, c. 1840-1930 5. An Aesthetic Trend 6. The Georgics Abroad 7. 'Happy Farmers' 8. The Georgics At Home Conclusion: Towards a Decolonizing Pedagogy of Latin Literature Appendix: The Geography of the Georgics Notes References Index of passages from the Georgics Index

Additional information

NLS9781350194908
9781350194908
1350194905
Virgil's Map: Geography, Empire, and the Georgics by Dr Charlie Kerrigan (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
New
Paperback
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
2022-04-21
216
N/A
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