Aggressive Elegy. The Politics of Communication in Ovid’s Ibis

This thesis, entitled ‘Aggressive elegy. The politics of communication in Ovid’s Ibis’, analyses Ovid’s Ibis as a true example of Roman elegy by combining the traditional exegetical approach with a linguistic pragmatic approach (linguistic politeness and impoliteness, non-verbal communication and gesture, and pathological communication). In a tripartite structure, the thesis addresses the many interpretive questions related to this still understudied poem by confronting it with other types of elegy (Roman love elegy and the rest of Ovid’s exile poetry). Part One (“The Ibis and Roman love elegy: (unexpected) continuity?”), divided into Chapters One and Two, discusses the relationship between the Ibis and Roman love elegy, by arguing for the existence of a form of elegiac communication, shared between curse and love spell. Part Two (“Lament and invective: the Ibis and the politics of exile”), divided into Chapters Three and Four, addresses the role of the Ibis inside Ovid’s exilic corpus, and Ovid’s communication towards Augustus in the Ibis, which ultimately leads to Ovid challenging Augustus’ power. In Part Three (“Manipulating emotions and knowledge: the catalogue and the labyrinth of references”), divided into Chapters Five and Six, this thesis analyses the catalogue of myths that occupies the majority of the poem. The analysis shows and explains the inconsistencies in Ovid’s choice of examples, which often prove to be unsuitable for the representation of an enemy, and presents the Ibis as an attempt, by Ovid, to claim again his role of uates. Ultimately, through the case of the Ibis, this work argues for a new understanding of Latin elegy as a genre in which, besides love, invective finds its rightful place as well.