Van Mal-Maeder Danielle. La fiction des déclamations

Brill, 2007. — xii, 196 p. — (Mnemosyne, Supplements 290).The Latin declamations have, except for sociological analysis, drawn but little attention from specialists of Antiquity. However, these fictional discourses represented the highlight of the rhetorical education and were a central element in literary activity. This book strives to draw the Latin declamations and their role in the Roman educational system from the shadows. It will bring to light their literary nature and underline their ties with poetry and the novel. It also investigates the relation between these texts and reality and the pertinence of their use as historical sources. The result is a revaluation of the declamations, liable to provoke a new interest in this major literary genre of Antiquity.