City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2010 Mensura Incognita: Queer Kinship, Camp Aesthetics, and Juvenal's Ninth Satire Michael Broder Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1713 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] MENSURA INCOGNITA QUEER KINSHIP, CAMP AESTHETICS, AND JUVENAL’S NINTH SATIRE by MICHAEL BRODER A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2010 ii © 2010 MICHAEL BRODER All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Classics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Craig A. Williams Date Chair of Examining Committee Jennifer T. Roberts Date Acting Executive Officer Joel Allen Ronnie Ancona Craig A. Williams Supervision Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv ABSTRACT MENSURA INCOGNITA QUEER KINSHIP, CAMP AESTHETICS, AND JUVENAL’S NINTH SATIRE by Michael Broder Adviser: Professor Craig Williams The dissertation addresses four problematic aspects of scholarship on Juvenal 9. The first two are matters of reception history: first, the poem has been understudied; and second, most major extant studies of the poem have been grossly or subtly homophobic. The other two problems are matters of literary criticism: Juvenal’s ninth satire has traditionally been read as an attack on homosexuality, when in fact it is neither an attack, nor is it about homosexuality. The current study addresses each of these problems, reassessing the ninth satire in the context of queer theory and camp aesthetics. Chapter One traces the homophobic tendencies in the modern reception of Juvenal 9 across reception modalities including expurgation, biographical criticism, and persona theory. Chapter Two reviews relevant concepts in queer theory and the discourse of camp. Queer theory emphasizes the performative dimensions of sex, gender, and kinship. Camp is a counter-normative discourse in which incongruous situations and juxtapositions are presented in a theatrical manner for humorous effect, expressing the relationship of sex, gender, and kinship deviants to dominant discourses of normativity and embracing the stigmatized identity of the deviant, marginalized other. Chapter Three reviews the debate over Juvenal’s moralism among scholars of satire beginning in the 1960s. This debate serves as an unwitting proxy for a debate about camp aesthetics by emphasizing the role v of perverse wit in articulating a moral satiric vision. Chapter Four offers a close, detailed reading of Juvenal’s ninth satire within the framework of queer theory and camp aesthetics laid out in previous chapters. The reading identifies instances of camp incongruity, theatricality, and humor, the embrace of stigmatized identity, and the expression of solidarity with the deviant. Particular emphases are the parody of social and cultural institutions such as marriage and patronage; literary genres such as epic, elegy, and declamation; and literary motifs such as servitium amoris, militia amoris, and exclusus amator, among others. A Conclusion recaps and extends some of the major contentions of the study and indicates directions for further research. Finally, an Appendix provides an original translation of Juvenal’s ninth satire. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation began life as a paper written for a Juvenal seminar taught by Professor Harry Evans at Fordham University in the fall of 2005. I owe Professor Evans a great debt for inspiring my interest in Juvenal and my fascination with the ninth satire. I subsequently presented my research in progress at a number of academic and professional conferences. I am grateful for the hospitality and intellectual camaraderie of students, faculty, and fellow conference participants at Princeton University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Cincinnati; the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York (special thanks to Will Duffy); and the Centre for Medical Knowledge at the University of Exeter (special thanks to Kate Fisher and Rebecca Langlands). At the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), I was graciously received on a number of occasions by the students, faculty, staff, and guests of the PhD Program in Classics, the English Students Association, and the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. I am also grateful to the officers, staff, and members of the American Philological Association, the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, where I presented portions of my research. My attendance at various academic and professional conferences was facilitated by travels awards from the Sue Rosenberg Zalk Fund at the CUNY Graduate Center; the Office of the President of the CUNY Graduate Center; the Classical Association of the Atlantic States; and a Student Bursary from the Wellcome Trust in London. Thanks to Ann Suter for her enthusiastic response to my work. Judith Hallett’s support and encouragement have been precious, invaluable, and irreplaceable. Back in Brighton vii Beach, Stuart (Shlomo) Felberbaum convinced me to study Greek and Latin, for better or worse. At Columbia University, Jeffrey Perl taught me that antiquity was the key to understanding modernity, whether that was his intention or not. Thanks to those who taught me Greek and Latin many years ago: Floyd Moreland, Rita Fleischer, Hardy Hanson, Stephanie Russell, and the rest of the faculty at the Latin/Greek Institute of the City University of New York in the summers of 1982 and 1983; Frank Romer, who read Thucydides and Tacitus with me at the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute in the summers of 1984 and 1986; and all of my professors in the Graduate Faculty in Classics at the Graduate Center, as well as those who taught me as part of the consortium with Fordham University and New York University. For their teaching, research, and contributions to pedagogy, I want to acknowledge the late Gerry Quinn, Jack Collins, and Seth Benardete, all formative influences in my early study of Greek and Latin language and literature. As for this dissertation, Joy Connolly, Holt Parker, Amy Richlin, Ralph Rosen, and Marilyn Skinner gave me valuable feedback on earlier incarnations of my research, and inspired me with their own research, writing, and teaching. My supervisor and the members of my committee, Craig Williams, Ronnie Ancona, and Joel Allen, provided ongoing encouragement and invaluable feedback. They also helped me to ensure that I argued my often controversial contentions vigorously and documented them rigorously. Of course, any errors that remain are my own responsibility. Finally, I must acknowledge Rand Snyder, the one who got away, and Jason Schneiderman, the one who didn’t. viii CONTENTS Copyright page ii Approval page iii Abstract iv Acknowledgments vi Table of Contents viii INTRODUCTION: Taking the Measure of Juvenal’s Ninth Satire 1 CHAPTER ONE: Problems of Reception and Interpretation 22 CHAPTER TWO: Queer Existence, Camp Aesthetics, and Classical Antiquity 64 CHAPTER THREE: Perverse Wit and the Crisis of Juvenalian Moralism 130 CHAPTER FOUR: A Reading of Juvenal’s Ninth Satire 191 CONCLUSION: Juvenal’s Ninth Satire (More) Fully Measured 294 APPENDIX: A Translation of Juvenal’s Ninth Satire 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY 320 1 INTRODUCTION Taking the Measure of Juvenal’s Ninth Satire The Ninth Satire is one of the most shocking poems ever written. … In spite of its repulsive subject it is a masterpiece. ...Because of its repulsive theme, the satire has been little imitated as a whole. … The beautiful poetry of 9.126-9 is worthy of a better setting, and once more shows the peculiar character of Juvenal, who, like Swift, has a soft heart inside his armour of cynicism. —Gilbert Highet, Juvenal the Satirist (1954)1 Juvenal’s ninth satire is a very special poem, a poem at once obsessed over and neglected, a poem whose full measure, it would seem, has never been adequately taken. Hence the Latin phrase used as the main title of this dissertation, mensura incognita, “unknown measure,” a phrase adapted from the words of Naevolus, the poem’s vivid, dramatic, and compelling interlocutor, who utters those words at 9.34 to characterize the size of his own indefatigable penis. The ninth satire has been both revered and reviled, often by the same scholars, who tend to hail it as one of Juvenal’s most accomplished poems while lamenting that such artistry should be wasted on such sordid subject matter (note Highet’s observation in the epigraph above to the effect that a lovely sentiment uttered by Naevolus is “worthy of a better setting”). Indeed, the poem has a striking reception history that has been driven largely by its startling representations of sex, 1 Quotes are from Highet 1954: 116, 118, and 274n1. Juv. 9.126-9 reads as follows: festinat enim decurrere velox flosculus angustae miseraeque brevissima vitae portio; dum bibimus, dum serta, unguenta, puellas poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus. For the swift little flower and briefest portion of a narrow and wretched life hastens to depart; while we drink, while we demand garlands, perfumes, girls, old age creeps up unawares. 2 gender, and kinship deviance, including male sexual submission, effeminacy, adultery, prostitution, and paternal surrogacy (what one might uncharitably call bastardy). To be sure, we read about these same phenomena in other Roman sources, such as the speeches of Cicero or the Naturales Quaestiones of Seneca, where they scarcely provoke the apoplexy often associated with Juvenal 9.2 The difference, it would seem, is not a matter of topic but of tone.