Horace and Juvenal: Formal Roman Satire

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Horace and JuvenalFormal 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 the
  reader 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

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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

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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 readers familiarity with the
  reference, and is related to intertextuality
  (referring to other texts)

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Formal Satire Rhetorical techniques (cont.)

• Catalogue a long list of persons, places, or
  things often exemplaexamples 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 poets
  frustration
• Aphorism a terse statement of a principle or
  moral truth

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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

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• Apostrophe
• a sudden turn from the audience to address a
  specific group or person or personified
  abstraction absent or present.

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Juvenal (c. 55-c. 135 CE)Juvenalian Satire

• wishes to obliterate corruption (pessimistic,
  tragic, apocalyptic)
• has bitter moral outrage / indignation follows
  Luciliuss use of aggressive invective and moral
  censure of vice
• is highly rhetorical (maximal use of figures of
  speech)
• seeks to illicit contempt (not forgiveness) in
  reader
• is not autobiographical or self-inclusive stance
  of superiority