The Materiality of Monetary Value in Martial’s Epigrams

IF 0.9 2区 历史学 0 CLASSICS CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Pub Date : 2021-10-01 DOI:10.1525/ca.2021.40.2.316
Elliott Piros
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Abstract

This paper examines representations of money in the epigrams of Martial. I argue that Martial’s poetics are deeply influenced by some of money’s economic functions, even if many of these functions are approached through networks of amicitia. By engaging with the indeterminacy of what can be called exchange value, Martial identifies an aesthetic dimension that becomes central to his humor. The form of value described by his paradoxical poetics of cash implies a category of matter that is at once sensuous and abstract, autonomous and dependent upon other modes of valuation. I focus on the sensuality of this abstract matter, its failure to become entirely impersonal, and on Martial’s habit of using deictic language to gesture to its presence. Such an aestheticization of monetary value differs from more familiar techniques of using vivid language to flesh out moral or satirical attitudes to wealth or the ways in which it is acquired. It instead approaches the instability of money as an object of inspiration in its own right, one that supports the epigrammatist’s habit of taking up postures throughout his corpus of poems, and of maintaining a degree of detachment between his voice and its pronouncements.
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尚武铭文中货币价值的物质性
本文考察了《尚武》警句中金钱的表现形式。我认为,尚武的诗学深受金钱的一些经济功能的影响,即使其中许多功能是通过友谊网络来实现的。通过处理所谓交换价值的不确定性,尚武确定了一个美学维度,这成为他幽默的核心。他关于现金的悖论诗学所描述的价值形式意味着一种物质类别,它既是感性的,又是抽象的,是自主的,并依赖于其他估价模式。我关注的是这个抽象事物的感性,它没有变得完全没有人情味,以及尚武使用指示语言来表示它存在的习惯。这种货币价值的审美化不同于人们更熟悉的技巧,即使用生动的语言来充实对财富或财富获取方式的道德或讽刺态度。相反,它本身就将金钱的不稳定性作为一种灵感对象,这支持了这位警句学家在整个诗歌语料库中采取姿势的习惯,并在他的声音和声明之间保持一定程度的超然。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.10
自引率
20.00%
发文量
6
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