Abstract
This essay interprets Eminem’s song, “Criminal” (2000, The Marshall Mathers LP, Track 18), as a Catullan project in establishing distance between the poet and poetic persona, accomplished through Catullan invective. Drawing upon pedagogical experience, I argue that Catullus (a Roman poet of the 1st Century BCE) and Eminem use analogous rhetorical tactics and structures to challenge accusations (real or imagined) of poor character stemming from their poetry. Catullus and Eminem vociferously articulate a separation of art from artist, using common transgressive poetics. Each poet disavows his own self-constructed stance of authenticity with similar threats of violence and postures of hyper-masculine dominance. In so doing, Catullus and Eminem challenge interpretative practices they elsewhere seem to assume and even encourage. Finally, I suggest that the programmatic poems of Catullus and Eminem construct similar readerly personae and that, ultimately, this confluence suggests not only a common poetics but also common discursive strategies in ancient and modern audiences.
Recommended Citation
Weiner, Jesse
(2019)
"“Every Time I Write a Rhyme / These People Think It’s a Crime”: Persona Problems in Catullus and Eminem,"
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy: Vol. 6:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dialogue/vol6/iss1/3
Included in
American Popular Culture Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Music Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Poetry Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons