Juvenal and the Poetics of Anonymity

Argues that Juvenal actively concealed his own authorship from his Satires in response to a dangerous political climate.

Tom Geue (Author)

9781108402859, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 August 2021

366 pages
21.5 x 13.9 x 1.9 cm, 0.475 kg

'This book is a tour de force of superb writing and meticulous scholarship. It is rare to find a book about Juvenal which is almost as lively as the old satirist himself, but Geue certainly comes closer than the rest of us manage. His thesis is simple and maintained throughout this long but hugely readable book … The style of this book is eminently readable and entertaining. … Throughout the book Geue pays great attention to making his own text readable and jargon-free, and he maintains an air of excitement and passion for the text under scrutiny which is as infectious as it is impressive. There is not a dull sentence anywhere, and all students of this wonderful poet will find this book invigorating and enlightening.' Classics For All

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literature & literary studies [D]