Transformative Change in Western Thought: A History of Metamorphosis from Homer to Hollywood (Legenda Main)

This groundbreaking volume maps the shifting place and function of marvelous transformations from antiquity to the present day. Shape-shifting, taking animal bodies, miracles, transubstantiation, alchemy, and mutation recur and echo throughout ancient and modern writing and thinking and continue in science fiction today as tales of gene-splicing and hybridisation. The idea of metamorphosis lies in uneasy coexistence with orderly world views and it is often cast out, or attributed to enemies. Augustine and the church fathers consider shape-shifting ungodly; Enlightenment thinkers suppress alchemy as unscientific; genetically-modified wheat and stem-cell research are stigmatised as unnatural. Yet the very possibility of radical transformation inspires hope just as it frightens. A provocative, theorising, trans-historical history, this book ranges across classics, literature, history, philosophy, theology and anthropology. From Homer and Ovid to Proust and H. P. Lovecraft and through figures from Proteus to Kafka's Fly and toSpiderman, four historical surveys are combined with nine case studies to show the malleable, yet persistent, presence of transformation throughout Western cultural history. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 Preface 12 List of Contributors 14 List of Illustrations 15 General Introduction: Metamorphosis — A Phenomenology 18 Part I: Antiquity and Archetypes 52 Introduction to Part I 53 1 The Transformations of Ovid’s Medea (Metamorphoses VII. 1–424) 105 2 Lynx-stone and Coral: ‘Liquid Rocks’ between Natural History and Myths of Transformation 148 3 Proteus and Protean Epic: From Homer to Nonnos 170 4 Arboreal Myths: Dryadic Transformations, Children’s Literature, and Fantastic Trees 180 Part II: Christianity and Classicizing 200 Introduction to Part II 201 5 Of Donkeys and D(a)emons: Metamorphosis and the Literary Imagination from Apuleius to Augustine 239 6 Adonis as Citrus Tree: Humanist Transformations of an Ancient Myth 269 7 Defacing God’s Work: Metamorphosis and the ‘Mimicall Asse’ in the Age of Shakespeare 290 8 Phantastica Mutatio: Johann Weyer’s Critique of the Imagination as a Principle of Natural Metamorphosis 324 Part III: Science: From the ‘Post-Metamorphic’ to the Posthuman 348 Introduction to Part III 349 9 ‘Our Mind Is the Ancient Proteus’: Proust, the Poets, and the Sea 405 10 ‘Horror in a Covered Platter’: H. P. Lovecraft and the Transformation of Petronius 432 11 Transforming the Experience of War in the Fiction of Marcel Aymé, René Barjavel and Michel Tournier 443 12 The Parabola Paradox: Transformation and Science Fiction 457 Epilogue 470 Bibliography: Primary Sources 474 Bibliography: Secondary Literature 487 Index I: Names, Concepts and Themes 522 Index II: Authors, Artists, Directors and their Works 532 General introduction : Metamorphosis a phenomenology / Ingo Gildenhard and Andrew Zissos The transformations of Ovid's Medea (Metamorphoses VII. 1-424) / Ingo Gildenhard and Andrew Zissos Lynx-stone and coral : 'liquid rocks' between natural history and myths of transformation / Sonia Macrì Proteus and protean epic : from Homer to Nonnos / Manuel Baumbach Arboreal myths : dryadic transformations, children's literature and fantastic trees / Zoe Jaques Of donkeys and d(a)emons : metamorphosis and the literary imagination from Apuleius to Augustine / Robert H.F. Carver Adonis as citrus tree : humanist transformations of an ancient myth / Carlo Caruso Defacing God's work : metamorphosis and the 'mimicall asse' in the age of Shakespeare / Robert H.F. Carver Phatastica mutatio : Johann Weyer's critique of the imagination as a principle of natural metamorphosis / Guido Giglioni 'Our mind is the ancient Proteus' : Proust, the poets, and the sea / Francesca Spiegel 'Horror in a covered platter' : H.P. Lovecraft and the transformation of Petronius / Luke Pitcher Transforming the experience of war in the fiction of Marcel Aymé, René Barjavel and Michel Tournier / Christopher Lloyd The parabola paradox : transformation and science fiction / Sarah Annes Brown. This book focuses on how metamorphosis figures in three formative configurations in the Western tradition: the classical, the biblical, and the scientific. It brings the history of transformative change from the eighteenth century to the present.