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Horace and Juvenal: Formal Roman Satire. Direct or Formal Roman Satire.
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Direct or Formal Roman Satire • A verse genre in hexameter (lines of 6 poetic feet) in which the fictional speaker (the persona or literary mask of the poet) addresses thereader directly in the first person, and also speaks to a fictional character (a friend, a lawyer, etc.) who typically offer counter-opinions; this person is called the adversarius
Direct or Formal Roman Satire cont. • Censures folly/vice and promotes moral virtue • Topical: refers to current events (socio-political) • Highly rhetorical genre • Famous practitioners: Lucilius, Horace, and Juvenal
Formal Satire – Rhetorical techniques • Hyperbole: a bold overstatement through exaggeration • Allusion: a figure of speech that refers to a historical or literary figure, event, or object; it relies on the reader’s familiarity with the reference, and is related to intertextuality (referring to other texts)
Formal Satire – Rhetorical techniques (cont.) • Catalogue: a long list of persons, places, or things; often exempla—examples of sinful types (stock characters: the miser, the glutton, or notorious figures from myth or history • Rhetorical question: a question asked for persuasive effect; it puts the persona and the reader in collusion and expresses the poet’s frustration • Aphorism: a terse statement of a principle or moral truth
Horace (65-8 BCE): Horatian Satire • “sermo cotidianus” (everyday speech / talk), informal, prosaic • genial and tolerant criticism of human foibles, amused more than angry • moderation and restraint in writing and in moral censure; advises the moderation of desire • autobiographical, playfully ridicules his own faults; humble and paternal persona • belief in reform, optimistic
Apostrophe: a sudden turn from the audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present.
Juvenal (c. 55-c. 135 CE):Juvenalian Satire • wishes to obliterate corruption (pessimistic, tragic, apocalyptic) • has bitter moral outrage / indignation; follows Lucilius’s use of aggressive invective and moral censure of vice • is highly rhetorical (maximaluse of figures of speech) • seeks to illicit contempt (not forgiveness) in reader • is not autobiographical or self-inclusive; stance of superiority