This paper examines how a complex of ideas involving memory and materiality can offer a new way t... more This paper examines how a complex of ideas involving memory and materiality can offer a new way to view metamorphosis in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Through the embodiment of power in transformed things, Ovid uses several of the episodes in the poem to push back against mutability and loss of speech, and to assert a different kind of permanence. Much of Ovid’s discourse about memory and materiality is linked through the trope of aetiology, i.e., the explanation of how something that exists now came into existence at a specific point in the past. Aetiology is by its nature a form of mnemonic device: it both highlights the enormous gulf separating past and present, and ensures temporal and cultural continuity. The aetiological narrative thus establishes its subject as a sign of permanence in an otherwise constantly changing landscape.
Les contenus des la revue Dictynna sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative... more Les contenus des la revue Dictynna sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale-Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
The topic of this chapter was suggested by the volume's editor. My first (though tacit) r... more The topic of this chapter was suggested by the volume's editor. My first (though tacit) response was that this could be a very short chapter indeed, since one might demonstrate persuasively that Ovid never wrote a word of love elegy, at least not if we define it as a genre in which the (usually male) poet uses the first person to establish an intimacy with his readers, to depict himself as protagonist in a narrative about his subordination-indeed, subjugation-to a woman whose dominant role in the relationship inverts Roman social reality, and to offer a compelling picture of a soul tormented by unrequited love and tantalizing desire. Ovid is a prolific writer of what I would call anti-love elegy-on those rare occasions when he does locate himself in this subordinating narrative, he does so with a rueful self-awareness that he should have (and could have) avoided the situation confronting him; his self-conscious playfulness bears little resemblance to the poetic soul-baring we associate with Catullus, Propertius, Sulpicia, and (presumably) Gallus. A second obstacle is the ambiguity of the phrase "teaching Ovid"-is "teaching" a gerund with Ovid its object, his name used as a metonymy for his verse, or an adjectival participle describing Ovid as teacher? The answer has important implications-after all, Ovid presents himself as a "teacher of love" (praeceptor amoris) throughout the Ars amatoria and Remedia amoris. Much of Ovid's elegy is explicitly didactic, furthermore, allowing the poet to assert his role as teacher; would this, then, be a more productive point of entry to the topic of this chapter? I offer an arch opening to this discussion because our subject is himself arch, continually inviting contemplation of the contradictory nature of his work. In this spirit, I undertake the following survey of how Ovid's love elegy is taught, and offer some suggestions about how his elegy can be approached in the classroom.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
... Mastronarde, "Actors," p. 257 and n. 28, p. 282, because of the nee... more ... Mastronarde, "Actors," p. 257 and n. 28, p. 282, because of the need to give the effect of height, believes that the girl may well have ... phonological pattern on a number of other occasions in the Fasti.10 At 2.599-616, Ovid tells the story of the chatty nymph Lala, whose eponymous ...
Oeid's Lilerary Loees reopens Ovid's Amores for the modern reader. This volume establis... more Oeid's Lilerary Loees reopens Ovid's Amores for the modern reader. This volume establishes a context for the recent reception of the Amores and proposes an alternative approach to the collection by examining recent trends in the discussion of imitation in Roman poetry. A ...
This paper examines how a complex of ideas involving memory and materiality can offer a new way t... more This paper examines how a complex of ideas involving memory and materiality can offer a new way to view metamorphosis in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Through the embodiment of power in transformed things, Ovid uses several of the episodes in the poem to push back against mutability and loss of speech, and to assert a different kind of permanence. Much of Ovid’s discourse about memory and materiality is linked through the trope of aetiology, i.e., the explanation of how something that exists now came into existence at a specific point in the past. Aetiology is by its nature a form of mnemonic device: it both highlights the enormous gulf separating past and present, and ensures temporal and cultural continuity. The aetiological narrative thus establishes its subject as a sign of permanence in an otherwise constantly changing landscape.
Les contenus des la revue Dictynna sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative... more Les contenus des la revue Dictynna sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale-Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
The topic of this chapter was suggested by the volume's editor. My first (though tacit) r... more The topic of this chapter was suggested by the volume's editor. My first (though tacit) response was that this could be a very short chapter indeed, since one might demonstrate persuasively that Ovid never wrote a word of love elegy, at least not if we define it as a genre in which the (usually male) poet uses the first person to establish an intimacy with his readers, to depict himself as protagonist in a narrative about his subordination-indeed, subjugation-to a woman whose dominant role in the relationship inverts Roman social reality, and to offer a compelling picture of a soul tormented by unrequited love and tantalizing desire. Ovid is a prolific writer of what I would call anti-love elegy-on those rare occasions when he does locate himself in this subordinating narrative, he does so with a rueful self-awareness that he should have (and could have) avoided the situation confronting him; his self-conscious playfulness bears little resemblance to the poetic soul-baring we associate with Catullus, Propertius, Sulpicia, and (presumably) Gallus. A second obstacle is the ambiguity of the phrase "teaching Ovid"-is "teaching" a gerund with Ovid its object, his name used as a metonymy for his verse, or an adjectival participle describing Ovid as teacher? The answer has important implications-after all, Ovid presents himself as a "teacher of love" (praeceptor amoris) throughout the Ars amatoria and Remedia amoris. Much of Ovid's elegy is explicitly didactic, furthermore, allowing the poet to assert his role as teacher; would this, then, be a more productive point of entry to the topic of this chapter? I offer an arch opening to this discussion because our subject is himself arch, continually inviting contemplation of the contradictory nature of his work. In this spirit, I undertake the following survey of how Ovid's love elegy is taught, and offer some suggestions about how his elegy can be approached in the classroom.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
... Mastronarde, "Actors," p. 257 and n. 28, p. 282, because of the nee... more ... Mastronarde, "Actors," p. 257 and n. 28, p. 282, because of the need to give the effect of height, believes that the girl may well have ... phonological pattern on a number of other occasions in the Fasti.10 At 2.599-616, Ovid tells the story of the chatty nymph Lala, whose eponymous ...
Oeid's Lilerary Loees reopens Ovid's Amores for the modern reader. This volume establis... more Oeid's Lilerary Loees reopens Ovid's Amores for the modern reader. This volume establishes a context for the recent reception of the Amores and proposes an alternative approach to the collection by examining recent trends in the discussion of imitation in Roman poetry. A ...
Uploads
Papers by Barbara Boyd