The Image of the Poet in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) - Hardcover

Pavlock, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0299231402 ISBN 13: 9780299231408

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009

Synopsis

Barbara Pavlock unmasks major figures in Ovid’s Metamorphoses as surrogates for his narrative persona, highlighting the conflicted revisionist nature of the Metamorphoses. Although Ovid ostensibly validates traditional customs and institutions, instability is in fact a defining feature of both the core epic values and his own poetics.
    The Image of the Poet explores issues central to Ovid’s poetics—the status of the image, the generation of plots, repetition, opposition between refined and inflated epic style, the reliability of the narrative voice, and the interrelation of rhetoric and poetry. The work explores the constructed author and complements recent criticism focusing on the reader in the text.

2009 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

About this title

About the Author:

Barbara Pavlock is associate professor of classics at Lehigh University and author of Eros, Imitation, and the Epic Tradition.

Review:

“The poet Ovid hiding behind famous figures from his Metamorphoses, be it a Narcissus or a Daedalus—this is a fascinating notion and one of particular interest to modern readers.”—Niklas Holzberg, University of Munich

“This engaging book explores the metapoetic relationship between Ovid and his characters, ranging from paradigmatic artists, such as Orpheus and Daedalus to more unusual ciphers for the poet’s voice, such as Ulysses and even Medea.”—Alison Sharrock, University of Manchester

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0299231402
• ISBN 13: 9780299231408
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208