Literature and Identity in the Golden Ass of Apuleius

Description

Literature and Identity in TheGolden Ass of Apuleius is the first English translation of a work published in 2007 as Le Metamorfosi di Apuleio: Letteratura e identità, by Luca Graverini. The second-century CE novel The Golden Ass, or Metamorphoses, has proven to be both captivating and highly entertaining to the modern reader, but the text also presents the critic with a vast array of interpretive possibilities. In fact, there is little consensus among scholars on the fundamental significance of Apuleius' novel: is it simply a form of narrative entertainment, or does it represent some sort of religious or philosophical propaganda? Can it be interpreted as a satire of fatuous belief in otherworldly powers, or is it an utterly aporetic text? Graverini begins by setting The Golden Ass in its ancient literary context. Apuleius' playful defiance of generic conventions represents a substantial literary innovation, but he is also taking part in a tradition of narrative and satirical literature that typically featured experimentation with genre. The interplay of generic elements found in The Golden Ass reflects the complexity of the author's cultural identity: Apuleius was a Roman North African who had traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean and enjoyed an extensive education in both Greek and Latin. Graverini concludes with a study of the complex interaction of these three dimensions of Apuleius' identity (African, Roman, and Greek), and investigates what the narrative can tell us about the culture of its readership. These cultural interactions affirm that The Golden Ass aims to delight its readers as well as to exhort them to religion and philosophy. Ben Lee's superb new translation will make Graverini's groundbreaking study available to a much wider scholarly readership. Contents Translator's note Author's note Preface 1. A Sweet Poetics 1.1 "But I..." 1.2 The ass and the cicada 1.3 A sweet and misleading whisper 1.3.1 The cicada's hypnotic song 1.3.2 Between utile and dulce 1.3.3 An alluring rhetoric 1.3.4 Between rhetoric and poetry: the Sirens 1.4 Between philosophy and entertainment: Astonishment (ut mireris) 1.5 The poetcs of the novel 1.6 Lucius of Patrae and Aristides of Miletus 2. Old Wives'Tales and Servile Pleasures 2.1 Entertainment, initiation, aporia, and satire 2.2 Dissonances 2.2.1 Desecrating details 2.2.2 Lucius, the priest, and the mob 2.2.3 His Holiness Martin Luther 2.3 Greedy priests 2.4 Isis and her sisters 2.5 Lucius' shaven head 2.6 Horizons of expectations 2.7 An old wives' tale (anilis fabula) 2.7.1 Literary polemics, philosophical polemics 2.7.2 The tradition of satire 2.7.3 The tradition of narrative 2.7.4 Cupid and Psyche 2.7.5 Models of reception 2.8 Paradox, satire, and levels of reading 2.9 Lucius, before and after 3. Metamorphoses of Genres 3.1 Philosophers on the road 3.2 Eyes and ears as criteria for truth 3.3 Lucius and the Sirens 3.4 Readers, listeners, and spectators 4. Greece, Rome, Africa 4.1 On the road with Lucius 4.2 The reputation of Corinth 4.3 Romanization 4.4 Romanocentrism 4.4.1 The Metamorphoses in Rome? 4.4.2 Centrifugal forces and integration 4.5 The readership of the novel 4.6 Between Rome and the provinces Bibliography Index locorum General index