Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition

Quintilian famously claimed that satire was tota nostra, or totally ours, but this innovative volume demonstrates that many of Roman Satire's most distinctive characteristics derived from ancient Greek Old Comedy. Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill analyzes the writings of Lucilius, Horace, and Persius, highlighting the features that they crafted on the model of Aristophanes and his fellow poets: the authoritative yet compromised author; the self-referential discussions of poetics that vacillate between defensive and aggressive; the deployment of personal invective in the service of literary polemics; and the abiding interest in criticizing individuals, types, and language itself. The first book-length study in English on the relationship between Roman Satire and Old Comedy, Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition will appeal to students and researchers in classics, comparative literature, and English.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. The poet in tension; 2. Defensive poetics; 3. Literary criticism; 4. Criticizing the komodoumenoi; Conclusion.

About the author

Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Miami. Her articles have appeared in the American Journal of Philology, Classical Philology, Illinois Classical Studies and Transactions of the American Philological Association.

Product details

• Authors: Jennifer Ferriss-Hill, Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill, Jennifer L. (University of Miami) Ferriss-Hill, Ferriss-Hill Jennifer L.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.02.2015
• EAN: 9781107081543
• ISBN: 978-1-107-08154-3
• No. of pages: 314
• Subjects: Education and learning > Schoolbooks, general education schools; Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Classical linguistics / literary studies; Latin, HISTORY / Ancient / General, Ancient Greece, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Ancient Rome, Ancient History, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, BCE to c 500 CE