Narrating Desire: Eros, Sex, and Gender in the Ancient Novel

Description

Representation of desiring subjects in the novel is one of the most illuminating issues in the area of ancient gender and sexuality, for such narratives subject societal norms to acute critique. This volume brings together fourteen essays originally given as oral presentations at the Fourth International Conference on the Ancient Novel (ICAN IV), held in Lisbon in July 2008. Employing feminist and psychoanalytic approaches, each offers a provocative investigation of sexual subjectivity as presented in the text or texts under discussion. The collection as a whole demonstrates the gradual convergence of formerly distinct norms of gendered behavior under pressure of emerging social realities.The editors of this volume are all well-known scholars in the fields of ancient narrative and/or ancient sexuality. Contributors include leading experts in these fields and emerging scholars whose research suggests directions for future exploration. Introduction Theorizing Love and Desire in the Ancient Novel Considering Desire in the Greek Romances Employing Lacanian Theory: Some Explorations Gender and Ways of Organizing Space Space and Gender in the Ancient Greek Novel Gendered Places in Two Later Ancient Novels (Aithiopika, Historia Apollonii) The Gardens of ‘Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoë’ Male Identity and Gendered Ambiguities in the Greek Novel Performing Paideia: Public and Private Masculinity in Chariton Gendered Ambiguities, Hybrid Formations, and the Imaginary of the Body in Achilles Tatius How to Be a Man: Towards a Sexual Definition of the Self in Achilles Tatius’ Novel Leucippe and Clitophon ‘Taking It Like a Man’: Gender, Identity and the Body in Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon Female Sexuality and Eroticism in the Greek Novel The Κρίσις Inside: Heliodoros’ Variations on the Bedtrick Female Sexuality in Longus and Alciphron Sexual Identity and Gender Transformations in Petronius and Apuleius Fortunata and the Virtues of Freedwomen Anxiety and Influence: Ovid’s Amores 3.7 and Encolpius’ Impotence in Satyricon 126 ff. Petronius’ Giton: Gender and Genre in the Satyrica Gender Transformations in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses Composite Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index Locorum Subject Index