Metamorphosis : transformations of the body and the influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses on Germanic literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries / David Gallagher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gallagher, David.

Series:

Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft 127.

Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 127

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Metamorphosis in literature.

German literature.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Metamorphoses (Ovid).

Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D. Metamorphoses.

Ovid.

Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D--Influence.

Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (470 pages).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The origins of selected instances of metamorphosis in Germanic literature are traced from their roots in Ovid’s Metamorphoses , grouped roughly on an ‘ascending evolutionary scale’ (invertebrates, birds, animals, and mermaids). Whilst a broad range of mythological, legendary, fairytale and folktale traditions have played an appreciable part, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is still an important comparative analysis and reference point for nineteenth- and twentieth-century German-language narratives of transformations. Metamorphosis is most often used as an index of crisis: an existential crisis of the subject or a crisis in a society’s moral, social or cultural values. Specifically selected texts for analysis include Jeremias Gotthelf’s Die schwarze Spinne (1842) with the terrifying metamorphoses of Christine into a black spider, the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s Die Verwandlung (1915), ambiguous metamorphoses in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Der goldne Topf (1814), Hermann Hesse’s Piktors Verwandlungen (1925), Der Steppenwolf (1927) and Christoph Ransmayr’s Die letzte Welt (1988). Other mythical metamorphoses are examined in texts by Bachmann, Fouqué, Fontane, Goethe, Nietzsche, Nelly Sachs, Thomas Mann and Wagner, and these and many others confirm that metamorphosis is used historically, scientifically, for religious purposes; to highlight identity, sexuality, a dream state, or for metaphoric, metonymic or allegorical reasons.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Preface

Abbreviations and Signs

Introduction

Arachnids, Invertebrates and Lepidoptera

Avian and Serpentine

Myriad Arboreal, Mammalian, Feline and Lupine

Melusinas, Nymphs, Water Sprites and Undinas

Christoph Ransmayr's Die letzte welt (1988)

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

90-420-2709-6

OCLC:

455845921

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789042027091 DOI