Abstract

This dissertation investigates the art of writing and the means of writing art in three texts: Virgil's didactic poem, the Georgics; a Platonic dialogue, the Phaedrus; and an Asian American text, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee. ;In chapter 1, "Eidos: The Art of Grafting," I discuss the image of grafting in book 2 of Virgil's Georgics. I will show how grafting can be interpreted to describe both the "art of farming" and the "art of writing." ;Chapter 2, "Techne: The Idea of Writing," investigates the theory of writing as an art involving certain techniques that is developed in Plato's Phaedrus. I will focus on the discussion on the art ) of rhetoric that works towards a definition of "true rhetoric" as the "writing on the soul." ;In chapter 3, "Ars: The Idea of Art," I will develop a notion of writing as "art" from the Georgics through a book-by-book analysis of the poem's use of the Latin word ars and of the poetic techniques of Virgil's writing. ;In chapter 4, "Eros Labor: The Image of a Voice," I will investigate the "voice" arising in the Georgics and the Phaedrus. This voice appears with peculiar effect in the epyllion of Aristaeus and Orpheus and in the palinode of the soul in love. ;The fifth and final chapter, "Elitere: The Idea of the Classics," studies how Theresa Hak Kyung Cha constructs a voice in Dictee through her writing and her use of images and imagery. The idea of grafting will be used to describe Cha's use of Greek literature and mythology, the traditions of Roman Catholicism, and Korean culture and history in Dictee