Pandora's senses : the feminine character of the ancient text / Vered Lev Kenaan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lev Kenaan, Vered.

Series:

Wisconsin studies in classics.

Wisconsin studies in classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pandora (Greek mythology) in literature.

Femininity in literature.

Classical literature--History and criticism.

Classical literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The notorious image of Pandora haunts mythology: a woman created as punishment for the crimes of man, she is the bearer of hope yet also responsible for the earth's desolation. She binds together perpetuating dichotomies that underlie the most fundamental aspects of the Western canon: beauty and evil, body and soul, depth and superficiality, truth and lie. Speaking in multiplicity, Pandora emerges as the first sign of female complexity. In this compelling study, Vered Lev Kenaan offers a radical revision of the Greek myth of the first woman. She argues that Pandora leaves a decisive mark on ancient poetics and shows that we can unravel the profound impact of Pandora's image once we recognize that Pandora embodies the very idea of the ancient literary text. Locating the myth of the first woman right at the heart of feminist interrogation of gender and textuality, Pandora's Senses moves beyond a feminist critique of masculine hegemony and shows the centrality of this iconic figure among the poetics of such central genres as the cosmological and didactic epic, the Platonic dialogue, the love elegy, and the ancient novel. Pandora's Senses innovates our understanding of gender as a critical lens through which to view ancient literature.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. Pandora's Light

Pandora, Once Again

The Genealogy of Pandora

Misogynist Responses to Pandora

Pandora's Wonder

2. Pandora and the Myth of Otherness

From Mount Helicon to a Poetics of Otherness

The Fantasy of Symbiosis between Men and Gods

Ambiguities of Identity: The Case of Brothers

The Loss of Sameness and the Birth of Eros

The Didactic Imperative: Learn the Other

3. The Socratic Pandora

Woman is the Ideal Listener

The Naked Truth and the Adorned Lie

The Seductions of Pandora

Socrates and Theodote

Socrates and Pandora

4. Pandora's Voice and the Emergence of Ovid's Poetic Persona

Pandora's Voice

From the Effeminate Elegy to the Feminine Text

The Erotodidactic Persona

Sappho's Lasciviousness

The Lascivious Text

5. Feminine Subjectivity and the Self-Contradicting Text

Ars and Remedia: Metadiscourse, Language Games, and the Problem of Sincerity

The Palinodic Structure

Palinode and Narrative

Pandora's Lie

A Girl's Rape and the Birth of Feminine Subjectivity

6. Pandora's Tears

Feminine Weaving: Text, Textile, Body, Pain

Helen's Web

Listening Like a Woman: Penelope's Tears

Odysseus Weeps Like a Woman

Xanthippe's Tears

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-236) and index.

ISBN:

9786612594762

9781282594760

1282594761

9780299224134

0299224139

OCLC:

608692471

Publisher Number:

2027/heb08799 hdl