The Walking Muse: Horace on the Theory of Satire (Princeton Legacy Library, 130) - Hardcover

Freudenburg, Kirk

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691631581 ISBN 13: 9780691631585

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2016

Synopsis

In laying the groundwork for a fresh and challenging reading of Roman satire, Kirk Freudenburg explores the literary precedents behind the situations and characters created by Horace, one of Rome's earliest and most influential satirists. Critics tend to think that his two books of Satires are but trite sermons of moral reform--which the poems superficially claim to be--and that the reformer speaking to us is the young Horace, a naive Roman imitator of the rustic, self-made Greek philosopher Bion. By examining Horace's debt to popular comedy and to the conventions of Hellenistic moral literature, however, Freudenburg reveals the sophisticated mask through which the writer distances himself from the speaker in these earthy diatribes--a mask that enables the lofty muse of poetry to walk in satire's mundane world of adulterous lovers and quarrelsome neighbors. After presenting the speaker of the diatribes as a stage character, a version of the haranguing cynic of comedy and mime, Freudenburg explains the theoretical importance of such conventions in satire at large. His analysis includes a reinterpretation of Horace's criticisms of Lucilius, and ends with a theory of satire based on the several images of the satirist presented in Book One, which reveals the true depth of Horace's ethical and philosophical concerns.

Originally published in 1992.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

About this title

About the Author:

Kirk Freudenburg is Professor of Greek and Latin at the Ohio State University. He received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin and has previously taught at Kent State University. He has published widely on Latin literature and is the author of The Walking Muse: Horace on the Theory of Satire (Princeton, 1993) (0691 031665). He is currently editing the Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire and Book II of Horace's Sermones for the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series.

Review:

"Admirably clear, stimulating, and accessible to the non-specialist." (Religious Studies Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0691631581
• ISBN 13: 9780691631585
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 278