Penser en listes dans les mondes grec et romain

In recent years, the theme of the list has received increasing attention in the academic field, for extremely diverse periods, to the point that it appears to be a universal form of structuring discourse, or at least a transcultural pattern. The articles gathered in this volume discusses the hypothesis that the list form, very frequent in Antiquity and present on a diversity of media, both expresses and constructs an ancient way of understanding the world. In a multidisciplinary dialogue (literature, history, archaeology, geography...), the seventeen contributions gathered in this volume are invitations to adopt an epistemic point of view, and to think of the list as a form-knowledge whose value lies, more than in the accumulation of data, in the meaningful combination and routing of it.

The first part, Cohérence et incohérences de la liste (Consistency and inconsistencies of the list), focuses, from distinct corpora, on the interpretative triggers that are the intruding items which, by deviating or appearing to deviate from the program of the list, stop the reading, surprise and arouse the search for an explanation, a second meaning or hidden intentions.

The articles of the second part, Choisir d'énumérer (Choosing to enumerate), highlight the multiplicity of functions that a list can simultaneously take on, by shedding light on a few examples: Donatus’ grammatical list, Aristotle’s list of vices and virtues, Ovid’s and Lucan’s epic catalogues of animals, list of tortures in Ovid's Contre Ibis, inventory in agronomic discourse...

The last part of the volume, Ce que le lecteur fait à la liste (What the reader does to the list), emphasises the dynamics of creation and reception of the list and the role of the reader/listener in this interpretative journey that reading an enumerative form implies.

Without repeating the inexhaustible richness of lists and their infinite variety, this collective volume seeks to invite the readers to experiment the outlined tracks of analysis, on other corpora and in other contexts, to refine or to criticise them.