Framing the ass : literary texture in Apuleius' Metamorphoses / S.J. Harrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harrison, S. J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apuleius. Metamorphoses.

Apuleius.

Apuleius--Criticism and interpretation.

Latin fiction--History and criticism.

Latin fiction.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

x, 293 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Complementing Harrison's previous volume, Apuleius: A Latin Sophist, this book studies one of the few extant Latin novels from the Roman Empire, Apuleius' Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass. Harrison shows that this work is one of remarkable literary complexity, playing off other classical forms, especially the related narrative form of the epic. The volume traces some of the history of the novel's criticism and offers a detailed analysis of its key sections and issues, demonstrating in detail the literary sophistication and complex intergeneric intertextuality which is the key feature of Apuleius' novel. Book jacket.

Contents:

I Apuleian Contexts

1 Constructing Apuleius: The Emergence of a Literary Artist 13

2 The Poetics of Fiction: Poetic Influence on the Language of Apuleius' Metamorphoses 39

3 The Milesian Tales and the Roman Novel 57

4 The Speaking Book: The Prologue to Apuleius' Metamorphoses 69

5 Apuleius, Aelius Aristides, and Religious Autobiography 81

6 Parallel Cults? Religion and Narrative in Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Some Greek Novels 95

7 Narrative Subversion and Religious Satire in Metamorphoses 11 109

II Novel and Epic

8 Some Odyssean Scenes in Apuleius' Metamorphoses 125

9 From Epic to Novel: Apuleius as Reader of Vergil 135

10 Some Epic Structures in Cupid and Psyche 159

11 Epic Extremities: The Openings and Closures of Books in Apuleius' Metamorphoses 179

12 Literary Topography in Apuleius' Metamorphoses 197

13 'Waves of Emotion': An Epic Metaphor in Apuleius' Metamorphoses 215

14 Literary Texture in the Adultery-Tales of Apuleius, Metamorphoses Book 9 229

15 Divine Authority in Cupid and Psyche: The Council of Gods at Apuleius, Metamorphoses 6.23-4 243

16 Apuleius and Homer: Some Traces of the Iliad in the Metamorphoses 257.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-289) and index.

ISBN:

9780199602681

0199602689

OCLC:

828415642