Book Description

The last decades have seen a lively interest in Roman verse satire, and this collection of essays introduces the reader to the best of modern critical writing on Persius and Juvenal. The eight articles on Persius range from detailed analyses of his fine technique to readings inspired by theoretical approaches such as New Historicism, Reader-Response Criticism, and Dialogics. The nine selections on Juvenal focus upon the pivotal question in modern Juvenalian criticism: how serious is the poet when he voices his appallingly misogynist, homophobic, and xenophobic moralism? The contributors challenge the straightforward equivalence of author and speaker in a variety of ways, and they also point up the technical aspects of Juvenal's art. Three papers have been newly translated for this volume, and all Latin quotations are also given in English. A specially written Introduction provides a useful conspectus of recent scholarship.