Metamorphic readings : transformation, language, and gender in the interpretation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses

Ovid’s remarkable and endlessly fascinating Metamorphoses is one of the best known and most popular works of classical literature, and perhaps the most influential of all on later European literature and culture. Loved for its vast repository of mythic material as well as its sophisticated manipulation of story-telling, the poem can be appreciated on many different levels and by audiences of very different backgrounds and educational experiences, whether it is for the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe or the endless but endlessly fascinating debate over the generic status of this epic which breaks all the rules and yet somehow must be included in any canon of Roman epics. The key to metamorphosis can be said to be not just transformation but also transgression, an especially significant issue in today’s culture and society. The actuality of Ovid’s Metamorphoses thus is remarkably strong, and that shows in the new scholarly approaches to the work. This anthology presents a number of recent developments, which, while representing different kinds of approach, explore the effects of transformation and transgression of borders in new ways. The main three aspects are transformations into the Metamorphoses (from what did the mythic narratives evolve), transformations in the Metamorphoses –(what new understandings of the dynamic of metamorphosis can be achieved), and how were the Metamorphoses transformed in later times, acquiring new meanings. So, transformation is explored as a form of transgression of states, or even the transcendence of mythic narrative. Ovid's remarkable and endlessly fascinating Metamorphoses is one of the best-known and most popular works of classical literature, exerting a pervasive influence on later European literature and culture. A vast repository of mythic material as well as a sophisticated manipulation of story-telling, the poem can be appreciated on many different levels and by audiences of very different backgrounds and educational experiences. As the poem's focus on transformation and transgression connects in many ways with contemporary culture and society, modern research perspectives have developed correspondingly. Metamorphic Readings presents the state of the art in research on this canonical Roman epic. Written in an accessible style, the essays included represent a variety of approaches, exploring the effects of transformation and the transgression of borders. The contributors investigate three main themes: transformations into the Metamorphoses (how the mythic narratives evolved), transformations in the Metamorphoses (what new understandings of the dynamics of metamorphosis might be achieved), and transformations of the Metamorphoses (how the Metamorphoses were later understood and came to acquire new meanings). The many forms of transformation exhibited by Ovid's masterpiece are explored--including the transformation of the genre of mythic narrative itself. Title_Pages Preface Acknowledgements List_of_Contributors IntroductionUnity_in_Transformation Reading_Metamorphosis_in_Ovids_Metamorphoses Gender_and_TransformationReading_Women_and_Gender_in_Ovids_Metamorphoses Between_a_Rock_and_a_Hard_RaceGender_and_Text_in_Ovids_Deucalion_and_Pyrrha_Episode_Met_1313415 HAC_Arethusa_TENUS_Met_5642Geography_and_Poetics_in_Ovids_Arethusa Ovids_Dream_or_Byblis_and_the_Circle_of_Metamorphoses Naso_DeusOvids_Hidden_Signature_in_the_Metamorphoses Latent_TransformationsReshaping_the_Metamorphoses The_Bavarian_Commentary_and_the_Beginning_of_the_Medieval_Reception_of_the_Metamorphoses The_Metamorphoses_of_SinPrudentius_Dante_Milton Narcissus_RevisitedScholarly_Approaches_to_the_Narcissus_Theme Bibliography Index_Locorum General_Index Metamorphic Readings presents a set of original interpretations of Ovid's seminal Metamorphoses and its reception in later literature, representing the state of the art of research on the poem and enhancing the suggestiveness of Ovid's masterpiece.