Apuleius, Phaedrus, Martial and the intersection of genres

Phaedrus, Martial, and Apuleius are aware that their works belong to a ‘low’ literary genre, and they all react with self-mocking understatement and constant dialogue with the reader. This strategy of defence is particularly prominent in passages where a metaliterary intersection with ‘high’ genres is proposed: Phaedr. 4,7; Mart. 8,3; Apul. met. 10,2. The paper focuses on these passages and examines the meaning and function that the shift from ‘sock’ to ‘buskin’ – to use their metaphor – has for the three authors. This comparison shows that Apuleius does not share Phaedrus’ and Martial’s open irony and polemic against lofty, ‘anti-realistic’ poetry, and does not exclude the presence of elevated genres, such as tragedy, in the open form of the novel. However, in Apuleius, tragedy is brougt down to the expressive code of the novel, and the veiled trace of authorial irony confirms the ‘metamorphosis’ of genre.