Roman Constructions collects together twelve published and unpublished papers on Latin literature and literary theory from 1989 to 1999. The papers share a common "postmodern" emphasis on the role of the modern scholar and critic in the construction, rather than recreation, of meaning, and attempt to show how this approach works in detailed readings of a number of Latin authors, above all Vergil. The papers deal with such topics as point of view and focalization, intertextuality, historical contextualization, and closure, and each section is introduced by reflections on recent work in these areas subsequent to the original papers. The work makes a plea for classical scholars to accept their historical situatedness and to give up the pretense of scientific objectivity so that they can play a fuller part in the cultural dialogues of the present.
