Recusatio
A recusatio is a poem (or part thereof) in which the poet says he is supposedly unable or disinclined to write the type of poem which he originally intended to, and instead writes in a different style.
The recusatio is something of a topos in ancient and Renaissance literature.[1] Its use has often been interpreted as a persona deliberately adopted by the poet, allowing him to assert himself in the guise of ironic self-deprecation or feigned humility.[2]
Ancient Greek origins[edit]
The topos of recusatio was introduced by Callimachus in his Aetia fr. 1.21-4,[3] and employed in his refusal to write a major epic, preferring slighter poetic forms.[4] The Anacreontea contain many similar examples.[5]
Examples from Latin literature[edit]
In Augustan Rome, pressure to write an epic celebration of the emperor’s achievement was felt by almost all poets. Virgil in his Eclogue VI.3ff offered an exemplary recusatio,[6] which at the same time held out the prospect of his ‘advancing’ to epic in the fullness of time.[7] By contrast Propertius (I. 7ff; II.34 lines 59-66; III.3 lines 39ff) and Horace (Ode I.6; Ode II.12) made more permanent objections;[8] while Ovid (Amores I.1; II.18 ) also presented himself as an elegist unable to reach to the heights of traditional epic.[9]
In the Silver Age, recusatio was used by poets to write epics but to avoid the subject of emperors themselves by disclaiming their ability to write of imperial deeds.[10] The third century AD saw recusatio employed again by Nemesianus in his Cynegetica (lines 15 - 47)[11]
Early modern and modern[edit]
- Edmund Spenser followed Virgil in The Shepheardes Calender in his recusatio of epic for pastoral, which was at the same time a programmatic prophecy of epic to come.[12]
- Bob Dylan placed himself in the elegist tradition of recusation in his song Blind Willie McTell, with its refrain’s self-contradictory claim that “nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell”.[13]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ P Cheney, Marlowe’s Counterfeit Profession (London 1997) p. 278
- ^ G D Williams, Banished Voices (Cambridge 1994) p. 33
- ^ L Smolenaas, Flavian Poetry (2006) p. 21
- ^ J Boardman ed, The Oxford History of the Classical World (Oxford 1991) p. 361-2
- ^ See Rosenmeyer, P. (1992) Poetics of Imitation p. 96ff.
- ^ Thomas, R (1985) From Recusatio to Commitment PLLS 5 (1985), p. 61
- ^ P Cheney, Marlowe’s Counterfeit Profession (London 1997) p. 74
- ^ J Boardman ed, The Oxford History of the Classical World (Oxford 1991) p. 600-4
- ^ G D Williams, Banished Voices (Cambridge 1994) p. 33 and p. 196
- ^ L Smolenaas, Flavian Poetry (2006) p. 28
- ^ See Jakobi, R. (2014) Nemesianus >Cynegetica< Edition und Kommentar, p.66; Conte, G.B. (trans Solodow) (1994), Latin Literature:A History, p. 613
- ^ P Cheney, Marlowe’s Counterfeit Profession (London 1997) p. 33 and 74
- ^ Quoted in N. Corcoran ed., Do You, Mr Jones? (London 2002) p. 215
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