A Queer Catullus for the 2010s and 2020s?
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Henry Stead
Abstract
This chapter is about the literary reception of Catullus in Britain between 2016 to 2023. It focuses on the ways in which the Republican Roman poet has been presented to the public as an explicitly queer historical and literary figure. The two major receptions of Catullus under discussion are the full book-length versions by Roz Kaveney (Catullus, 2018) and Isobel Williams (Switch, 2023). The essay draws on interviews conducted by the author with the two poet translators and examines why in the 2010s and 2020s we encounter Catullan personae that openly challenge heteronormativity and dominant sociocultural practice via abrasive or somehow radical performances of sexuality and gender.
Content Warning: this chapter includes frank references to and discussion of explicit images of sexual violence.
Abstract
This chapter is about the literary reception of Catullus in Britain between 2016 to 2023. It focuses on the ways in which the Republican Roman poet has been presented to the public as an explicitly queer historical and literary figure. The two major receptions of Catullus under discussion are the full book-length versions by Roz Kaveney (Catullus, 2018) and Isobel Williams (Switch, 2023). The essay draws on interviews conducted by the author with the two poet translators and examines why in the 2010s and 2020s we encounter Catullan personae that openly challenge heteronormativity and dominant sociocultural practice via abrasive or somehow radical performances of sexuality and gender.
Content Warning: this chapter includes frank references to and discussion of explicit images of sexual violence.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
- Stephen Harrison’s Major Publications (June 2025) 13
- L. Manlius Torquatus’ in Sullam 27
- Catullus in the Ancient Greek Novels (with a Focus on Chariton) 43
- A Queer Catullus for the 2010s and 2020s? 75
- Swearing like a Philosopher on Trial: Catullus, Epicurus, and Beards in Apuleius’ Apologia 113
- Apuleius and the Greek Novel: Generic Infringement 135
- Philosophical Enrichment: Akrasia in Vergil 167
- Pallas, Son of Hercules 191
- Vergil in Ethiopia? Nello Martinelli’s Amba Alagia 207
- How the Winds Blow: Inherited Anemologies in Valerius Flaccus’s Argonautica 235
- The Gnat’s Descent: Intertextuality and Poetic Memory in the Pseudo-Vergilian Culex 261
- Vergilian Roleplay in The Rape of the Lock 283
- Back to the Future: (Spatio)temporal Enrichment in Horace’s Odes 3.3 and 3.27 307
- List of Contributors 327
- Index Rerum et Nominum
- Index Locorum
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
- Stephen Harrison’s Major Publications (June 2025) 13
- L. Manlius Torquatus’ in Sullam 27
- Catullus in the Ancient Greek Novels (with a Focus on Chariton) 43
- A Queer Catullus for the 2010s and 2020s? 75
- Swearing like a Philosopher on Trial: Catullus, Epicurus, and Beards in Apuleius’ Apologia 113
- Apuleius and the Greek Novel: Generic Infringement 135
- Philosophical Enrichment: Akrasia in Vergil 167
- Pallas, Son of Hercules 191
- Vergil in Ethiopia? Nello Martinelli’s Amba Alagia 207
- How the Winds Blow: Inherited Anemologies in Valerius Flaccus’s Argonautica 235
- The Gnat’s Descent: Intertextuality and Poetic Memory in the Pseudo-Vergilian Culex 261
- Vergilian Roleplay in The Rape of the Lock 283
- Back to the Future: (Spatio)temporal Enrichment in Horace’s Odes 3.3 and 3.27 307
- List of Contributors 327
- Index Rerum et Nominum
- Index Locorum
