Event

Speaker: Kate Meng Brassel, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Title: "Autopsy of a Satirist"

Abstract: Persius’ Satires—a collection of seven poems which so ostentatiously, early, and often dare their reader to put them down and walk away—do not immediately strike one as worth the labor and attention of classicists in 2023. The unpleasant verse and harsh voice of the Neronian poet have turned many readers away, including—apocryphally—Saint Jerome, who supposedly put the unintelligible hexameters to better use as kindling at his hearth. But it is precisely Persius’ refusal to please, his critical stand on hallowed philosophical and literary grounds, and—I argue—antagonistic, even anti-classicizing, relationship to already-classical philosophical and literary norms that makes a full reassessment of the intellectual project of the satires an important contribution toward a 21st century “classical studies.” This talk introduces the satires as a libellus that exposes the fundamental fictions underpinning both the conventions of “inspired” poetry and those of the most high-minded ethical discourses. Sporting with both reincarnation and his own cremation, the satirist unwrites the tradition of philosophical legacy and literary monumentalism, leaving only a pile of ashes in your hands as you arrive at his last line.