Poetics and polemics: Horace's satiric idiom and the comic tradition

This dissertation argues that Horace constructed his satiric idiom in large part from Attic Old Comedy.;Chapter 1 establishes the keen interest in the dramatic genres, particularly Old Comedy, evinced throughout Horace's Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica. Chapter 2 explores the role of food and the body in Roman Satire and Old Comedy, viewed through Bakhtin. Chapter 3 investigates the similar ways in which Aristophanes and Horace present themselves as intimately tied to the life of the city, and claim for themselves the role of teacher.;The final two chapters explore various different manifestations of criticism, and it is here that the notions of poetics and polemics come together. Chapter 4 is devoted to an examination of the "literary response": a device that allows poets to present a defense of their artistic program as if it were a response to criticisms they have received. Chapter 5 argues that in their literary critical activities, Horace and Aristophanes should be understood as separate from the rest of the ancient literary critical corpus, and intimately bound to one another.;Throughout these chapters I attribute the points of contact between Old Comedy and Roman Satire to a quality I term their exotericism, that is, outward directedness: as satirists, Horace and Aristophanes are inspired by their surroundings, and engage in relentless dialogue with them.