Roman Satire 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.

Author: Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 02/26/2015
Pages: 314
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.80h x 7.00w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781107081543

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2015

About the Author
Ferriss-Hill, Jennifer L.: - 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.