Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
|
Lädt ... On Ovid's Metamorphoses (Core Knowledge)von Gareth Williams
Keine Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  pomo58 | Jul 31, 2022 | 
“You can’t read the Metamorphoses passively,” Gareth Williams declares in the Epilogue of the work under review, “and the challenge is to try to meet Ovid at least halfway” (p. 162). Of all the ways of approaching Ovid’s Metamorphoses offered in the book, this pronouncement is its methodological core, and there are few better to issue this challenge on behalf of Ovid than Williams, who has published extensively on Ovid for the last thirty years. Williams succeeds, in On Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in compelling us to read the Metamorphoses actively with him. The book is full of lively and provocative readings of Ovid’s greatest work, careening through its changing tales and tales about change to portray a work which, having endured throughout the two millennia since its composition, find a deep resonance even in—or especially in—the 2020s. Gehört zu Verlagsreihen
"Ovid was hardly the first Greco-Roman writer to treat the theme of metamorphic myth, but his poem of transformation was itself transformative in the literary landscape of Augustus' Rome. Breathtakingly original in the scale of its intellectual and creative ambition, in many ways it changed the course of Latin literary history through the influence it exerted on successive generations of poets at Rome. From Late Antiquity onwards, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance into the Early Modern period and far beyond down to the present day, the work has stood the test of time as one of the most influential cultural legacies of ancient Rome. Gareth David Williams demonstrates how Ovid's Metamorphoses is not just a colorful collection of stories about change, but a study of change itself. Perspectives are constantly shifting, appearances deceive, and reality is always a work in progress. The motives that cause different characters to act as they do are often slippery, mixed, and hard to pin down. Williams asks why this is, and explores what Ovid was aiming to achieve in creating this changeful world at the dawn of the first century CE. He also shows why Ovid speaks so eloquently of and to the modern moment. Williams is centrally concerned with the Metamorphoses as a text of our times. What work can the poem do with and for us now in the 21st century? How can it inform our experience amidst the uncertainties of modern life?"-- Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)873.01Literature Latin Latin epic poetry to ca. 499, Roman periodKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (4.5)
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
With the exception of a couple of the stories, it has been a long time, decades, since I have read the entire work. In addition to reading in translation, one of my undergrad professors, for an independent study course, had me translate several books. That gave me a whole new appreciation for the work.
So picking up this book by Williams both brought back some great memories and made me interested in rereading the entire work again. Rather than work through the entire Metamorphoses, we are treated to more detailed readings of a few of the stories that highlight ideas and themes that run throughout. But while there is a bit of historical contextualization, we also see how we can bring some of the lessons and insights into our contemporary lives.
Williams makes no excuses for the elements of the society in which Ovid wrote, but at the same time points out the ways in which there are indeed progressive ways to read and understand the work. The idea of change, whether through effort or fate, is looked at from many perspectives by Ovid and while this book doesn't try to be exhaustive it does try to prepare the reader to engage with the work in an active and personal manner.
Highly recommended for those who have already read Ovid. I think it would also be useful for those about to read it as well, as long as you don't let any of the more detailed sections inhibit your reading. Williams tries to guard against a prescriptive reading other than to insist it must be read actively.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. (