Juvenal and the Poetics of Anonymity

Juvenal, a satirist, wiped all traces of himself from his texts, creating a mysterious and anonymous author figure. This self-concealment echoes and amplifies the neurotic politics of writing under surveillance, according to Juvenal and the Poetics of Anonymity.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 366 pages
Publication date: 19 August 2021
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

One of the most enigmatic figures in ancient history is undoubtedly the satirist Juvenal. Despite the lack of a definitive name and a questionable biography, his Satires managed to gain widespread recognition within the classical tradition. Tom Geue contends that the absence of the author figure is not merely a result of the passage of time, but rather a startling and deliberate outcome of the Satires themselves. Juvenal, writing under the heightened paranoia of a historical maximum, employed this dark energy by erasing all traces of himself—his signature, physical body, biographical snippets, and social connections—from his reticent texts. This final representative of a once self-betraying genre took a radical step into anonymity. Juvenal and the Poetics of Anonymity delves into this perplexing self-concealment throughout the entirety of Juvenal's corpus. Through meticulous close readings, it demonstrates the crucial role of the missing author in this satire and how this absence reverberates and amplifies the neurotic politics of writing under surveillance.

Juvenal's Satires, despite their uncertain origins and questionable biography, managed to establish themselves within the classical tradition. However, Tom Geue argues that the absence of the author figure is not merely a consequence of the passage of time but rather a deliberate outcome of the Satires themselves. Juvenal, operating under the heightened paranoia of a historical maximum, utilized this dark energy by erasing all traces of himself—his signature, physical body, biographical snippets, and social connections—from his reticent texts. This final representative of a once self-betraying genre took a radical step into anonymity. Juvenal and the Poetics of Anonymity explores this perplexing self-concealment throughout the entirety of Juvenal's corpus. Through meticulous close readings, it demonstrates the crucial role of the missing author in this satire and how this absence reverberates and amplifies the neurotic politics of writing under surveillance.

Weight: 464g
Dimension: 172 x 216 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108402859