Unspeakable Enjoyment in Catullus (80, 16, 11, 63)

Abstract

There are forms of enjoyment in Catullus that cannot be understood within the norms of pleasure as opposed to pain or unpleasure. This is an enjoyment that Freud would claim is beyond the pleasure principle, and thus integrally related to aggression, violence, and death: an enjoyment that is at once abject and sublime. Taking off from Mario Telò’s Archive Feelings, this paper examines these forms of enjoyment and how they function within the aesthetic structure of four poems by Catullus.

Keywords

• Catullus
• Gellius
• Furius
• Aurelius
• Lesbia
• Attis