Centones: Recycled Art or the Embodiment of AbsoluteIntertextuality?
The paper discusses the controversy over literary legitimacy of
the late antique centos, i.e. patchwork poems composed of
quotations from Homer or Virgil. A succinct historical overview
of the cento poetry is followed by a commentary on the cento
poetics articulated by Ausonius in his prefatory letter to the
Cento Nuptialis. Further, the author presents some of the
characteristic examples of cento criticism. The modes of
production of the cento texts are consequently examined from
the perspective of modern reception theories, the
poststructuralist concept of intertextuality, and, last but not
least, the Saussurean differential theory of language. The
author comes to the conclusion that the cento is actually a
highly innovative and perfectly legitimate literary form.