Juvenal and the poetics of anonymity / Tom Geue.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Geue, Tom, author.

Series:

Cambridge classical studies.

Cambridge classical studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Juvenal--Criticism and interpretation.

Juvenal.

Satire, Latin--History and criticism.

Satire, Latin.

Anonymous writings--History--To 1600.

Anonymous writings.

Anonymous persons in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 352 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Summary:

The satirist Juvenal remains one of antiquity's greatest question marks. His Satires entered the mainstream of the classical tradition with nothing more than an uncertain name and a dubious biography to recommend them. Tom Geue argues that the missing author figure is no mere casualty of time's passage, but a startling, concerted effect of the Satires themselves. Scribbling dangerous social critique under a historical maximum of paranoia, Juvenal harnessed this dark energy by wiping all traces of himself - signature, body, biographical snippets, social connections - from his reticent texts. This last major ambassador of a once self-betraying genre took a radical leap into the anonymous. Juvenal and the Poetics of Anonymity tracks this mystifying self-concealment over the whole Juvenalian corpus. Through probing close readings, it shows how important the missing author was to this satire, and how that absence echoes and amplifies the neurotic politics of writing under surveillance.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction: meet anon; 2. Anonymity programmed; 3. The anatomy of anonymity: bodies and names; 4. Shrinking, slinking and sinking; 5. Consolation, isolation, indigestion; Conclusion: the anonymity of satire; Bibliography; General index; Index locorum.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Nov 2017).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-24696-6

1-108-26248-1

1-108-24524-2

1-108-26064-0

1-108-23634-0

1-108-25724-0

1-108-25894-8