Roman Satire

This compact and critically up-to-date introduction to Roman satire examines the development of the genre, focusing particularly on the literary and social functionality of satire. It considers why it was important to the Romans and why it still matters.

• Provides a compact and critically up-to-date introduction to Roman satire.
• Focuses on the development and function of satire in literary and social contexts.
• Takes account of recent critical approaches.
• Keeps the uninitiated reader in mind, presuming no prior knowledge of the subject.
• Introduces each satirist in his own historical time and place – including the masters of Roman satire, Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal.
• Facilitates comparative and intertextual discussion of different satirists.

Preface.

Timeline: Roman satire and its influence.

Introduction.

1 Beginnings (?)

2 Horace.

3 Persius.

4 Juvenal.

5 Menippeans and after.

Notes.

Index.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2007

"This is the best introduction to this subject this reviewer has encountered … It is stimulating, original, and highly informative, and it takes account of all relevant scholarship … Summing Up: Essential. All readers; all levels." (Choice)

"What sets this introductory book apart from others of its kind is its dedication to tackling the perpetually vexing question of satire as a genre - the question that vexed the satirists themselves." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review)

"A volume to which one would direct bright students in search of stimulation and intellectual challenge." (Scholia Reviews)

Daniel M. Hooley is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia. His previous publications include The Classics in Paraphrase: Ezra Pound and Modern Translators of Latin Poetry (1988) and The Knotted Thong: Structures of Mimesis in Persius (1997). This text is a compact and critically up-to-date introduction to Roman satire. It examines the development of the genre and focuses particularly on the literary and social functionality of satire. The book considers why men of learning and position adopted this “low” mode of expression, why satire was important to the Romans, and why it still matters. Designed for student readers, it presumes no specialized knowledge, yet takes account of the most recent critical approaches.

The text presents each of the major practitioners of verse satire – Horace, Persius, and Juvenal, and their forebear Lucilius – in the context of the social milieux in which they wrote. It includes comparative and intertextual discussion of different satirists, including those of the Menippean tradition.

"You can trust Hooley to convey to students and teachers in both classics and literature classes the best of current thinking on the genre and mode of satire."
—John Henderson, University of Cambridge

"This is no run-of-the-mill introduction to Roman satire. The book does its solid introductory work, certainly, but at the same time, it manages to be quite brilliant and chock-full of smart new observations."
—Kirk Freudenburg, University of Illinois