Liebesgedichte als Wagnis

In the late stage of the Roman Republic, C. Valerius Catullus (84 – 54 BC) composed 116 Carmina, which propagate new social and literary ideas. “Lesbia” is one of those ideas: 28 poems establish a relationship between this puella and the I-narrator acting as amator – an idea which was contradictory to the Ancient Roman moral code. This thesis analyses each Lesbia-poem for the emotions joy, surprise, anger, disgust, sadness, fear, embarrassment and jealousy/envy to reveal new intratextual references and to characterise the carmina literarily as a venture, which sets off in the transgressions between the “old” and the “new”. The question how Catull translates his position within the socio-cultural context of the Late Republic with the help of the emotions of his I-narrator toward the puella opens a new access to the Carmina about Lesbia, which are interpreted both psychologically and sociologically.