Department of English

A Horace of Different Colors: Through this course we will consider the specific contributions made by Horace as satirist. We will consider his elevation of the genre, with particular attention to the authority he gives himself and subsequent generation of authors to put images into words. We will read his work in contrast to other Roman satirists and then, we will consider the mythography of Horace, the various ways that the poet and his work have been assimilated into and projected on the work of other writers. Texts to be considered will include: 

Horace: Satires and Epistles; Juvenal: Satires; Persius: Satires; Dante Vita Nuova and Commedia (selections); Chaucer: The Book of the Duchess, House of Fame, and a few selections from The Canterbury Tales; Ariosto: Orlando Furioso and Satires; More: Utopia; Erasmus: Praise of Folly; Jonson: The Poetaster; Every Man in His Humour; Every Man out of his Humour; Dryden: Mac Flecknoe; Pope: The Dunciad; Imitation of Horace; Essays; Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin