Abstract: Abstract Through six case studies in contemporary receptions of Ovid, this special issue, Ovid and Identity in the Twenty-First Century, asks why the Roman poet is still ‘everywhere’. The collection develops and complicates perspectives on the now time-honoured concept of the ‘postmodern Ovid’, and also of postmodernism itself. Articles address dialogues with Ovid in work by the German poets Barbara Köhler and Anja Utler; the American novelists E. L. Doctorow and Jeffrey Eugenides, the Scottish novelist Ali Smith; the Israeli artist and intellectual Bracha Ettinger, and in the Titian 2012 project, particularly the Machina ballet. The final article surveys and critiques the last thirty years of Latinist scholarship on Ovid, in particular its evolving engagements with postmodernism. This final article then proffers new ways to read Ovid. Each article constitutes, either explicitly or implicitly, fresh insights into the role of Ovid in the reinscription of, or the modification of, or the rejection of and the turning away from, the fleeting-and-yet-tenacious moment of the postmodern. As a whole, this special issue demonstrates that while certain versions of Ovid enable the rebooting of postmodernism in newly-politicized modes, in other guises he plays a crucial part in recent cultural forms that reject postmodernism altogether. These essays testify, therefore, to the role of classical reception studies in critiquing and modifying postmodern thought. PubDate: 2019-12-01
Abstract: Abstract This paper explores Martha Graham’s Cave of the Heart and her approach to the Medea myth. It focuses especially on Graham’s decisions to situate Medea in a gynocentric world, not to include the children, and to make Medea’s sexual jealousy the central theme. I examine the similarities and differences between Martha Graham’s approach and that of Euripides and show that the two works have a different focus but bring about a similar effect: they both show Medea triumphant at the end, a woman who asserts her power by taking on both subhuman and superhuman features. The similarity of the endings serves in turn to underline basic differences in the two artists’ interests and approaches to the myth: Euripides focuses on the characters’ intellect and mental experience and questions sexual jealousy as being trivial and insignificant, while Martha Graham examines emotion through complex and unfamiliar movements of the body, showcases the overwhelming power of jealousy, and celebrates its intensity and importance. PubDate: 2019-09-24
Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
[2570 journals]
