Minucius Felix is an author that has been praised in different occasions and by different scholars as a Latin Christian author of class who succeeded in creating a literary dialogue -his Octavius– following the Ciceronian model. His dialogue has been considered a “pleasant reading” by scholars such as V. Albretch, and even an author of the size of E. Norden left us a study of his prose.
In this paper, I intend to examine Miucius´ style from a rigorous point of view in order to contrast these statements with a more thorough study of his prose. To this end, we will use the method of structural stylistic designed by prof. Hernández Vista. After delivering a brief exposition on the main principles of his method, I will present my analysis of the text, which has been taken from Octavius, chapter 17 in the edition of J. Beujeau. I will deliver an exposition about the main rhetoric and linguistic features across the different strata: phonologic, lexical-semantic, syntactical, stratum of the construction and rhythmic stratum. Then I will explore the different “units of signification” that make up the text to, finally, establish (to follow H. Vista´s own terminology) the “convergences” that appear in the text and the relations that may arise between the level of the signifier and that of the meaning.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Principios y estudios de estilística estructural aplicados al latín y al español. Ed. José González Vázquez. Universidad de Granada, 1982
Corona spicea: in memoriam Cristobal rodriguez Alonso. Universidad de Oviedo, 1999
Minucius Felix, Octavius. J. Beaujeu, Paris, Les Belles lettres, 1964
Cicero on the Ideal Orator (De Oratore). James M. May, Jakob Wisse. Oxford University Press, 2001
The Conflict of Rhetoric in the ‘Octavius’ of Minucius Felix. J.F. O’ Connor, Classical Folia 30 (1976): 165-173.
De M. Felix aetate et genere dicendi. E. Norden, Universitat Greifswald, Ostern 1897.
A history of Roman literatura, from Livius Andronicus to Boetius. M. Von Albretch, E.J. Brill, Leiden- New York- Köln.
Javier Maldonado, KCL
Lyceum Classics Community Seminar 