Ambiguities of War: A Narratological Commentary on Silius Italicus’ Battle of Ticinus (Sil. 4.1-479)

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Ambiguities of War: A Narratological Commentary on Silius Italicus’ Battle of Ticinus (Sil. 4.1-479) is written by Elisabeth Schedel and published by BRILL. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 9004522670 (ISBN 10) and 9789004522671 (ISBN 13).

This Narratological Commentary on Silius’ Battle of Ticinus lays bare the narrative form of the text by addressing numerous narratological aspects, including plot-development, focalization, space, and intertextuality. The book also focuses on the phenomenon of ambiguity with its dynamic processes of (un-)strategic production, perception, and resolution. Ambiguity is a central feature of the Punica because of the epic’s constant oscillation between fact and fiction: it treats the changing fortunes of war and the tension between Rome and Carthage, which Silius translates into a moment of poetical equilibrium by his paradoxical problematization of triumph in defeat and defeat through triumph.