Product Description
Ellen D. Finkelpearl's Metamorphosis of Language in Apuleius studies the use of literary allusion by the Roman author Apuleius, in his second century C.E. novel the Metamorphoses, popularly known as The Golden Ass. Apuleius' work is enticing yet frustrating because of its enigmatic mixture of the comic and serious; a young man is transformed into a donkey, but eventually finds salvation with the goddess Isis. Finkelpearl's book represents the first attempt to place Apuleius' allusive practices within a consideration of the development of the ancient novel.
When Apuleius wrote his Metamorphoses, the novel--indeed the very concept of fiction in prose--was new. This study argues that Apuleius' repeated allusions to earlier Latin authors such as Vergil, Ovid, and Seneca represent an exploration on his part of the relationship between the novel and more established genres of the era. Apuleius' struggle with this tradition, Finkelpearl maintains, parallels the protagonist's move from an acceptance of the dominance of traditional forms to a sense of arrival and self- discovery.
An introductory chapter includes general discussion of the theory and practice of allusion. Finkelpearl then revisits the issues of parody in Apuleius. She also includes discussion of Apuleius' use of Vergil's Sinon, the Charite episode in relation to Apuleius' African origins, and the stepmother episode. Finally a new reading of Isis is offered, which emphasizes her associations with writing and matches the multiformity of the goddess with the novel's many voices.
This book will be of interest to scholars of literature and the origins of the novel, multiculturalism, and classical literature.
Ellen D. Finkelpearl is Associate Professor of Classics at Scripps College, Claremont, California.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

golden arches
This book of allusion in the of Apuleius supplies intelligent discussion of some fruitful scenes and tries to sketch a framework of methodologies of approaching allusion, influence and imitation in ancient literature. The second chapter on parody and the fourth chapter on the narrator as a liar, allusions to Sinon, are the two I found most coherently informing. The primary strength of this book is the application of the author's close reading and well of intelligence. Finkelpearl illuminates specific points of departure (primarily Vergil and Ovid) for Apuleius' own fabulous transformations. Another strength, surely a sign of wisdom on the part of the author, also makes for an absence of note in my reading. I am speaking of a lack of consistent theoretical approach to allusion. It is perhaps the case that each author uses other texts differently, sui generis in every case. However, the collection of methods and approaches to allusion, intertextuality, imitatio, influence seems to be without a guiding principal, aside from situational efficacy. In this case, Finkelpearl by carrying a very large toolbox, on the whole, seems to approach each textual situation with the appropriate tool. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in ca. 1900.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: London : Longmans; Publication date: 1851; Subjects: Mythology, Classical/ Fiction; Metamorphosis/ Fiction; Mythology, Classical; Metamorphosis; Fantasy fiction; Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Fairy Tales, Folklore ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
++++
The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
++++
Cambridge University Library

N004882

A verse translation by Hudson Gurney.

London : printed for J. Wright, 1799. 48p. ; 8° ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
The Prologue of Apuleius' innovative novel, the Metamorphoses (or Golden Ass), has captivated readers and scholars from the Renaissance to the present day. This volume contains a new text and translation of the Prologue and a wide range of essays which highlight its importance for students of Classical literature and modern literary theory. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Desultoria scientia is the fifth volume of caeculus and contains the proceedings of the fifth Fransum Colloquium, held on 18 May 2002. The Fransum Colloquia are meant to assist PhD-candidates in Mediterranean Archaeology and Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Groningen in the final phase of their doctoral research. The fifth colloquium was organised around the work of Wytse Keulen, who in January 2003 successfully defended his thesis Apuleius Madaurensis: Metamorphoses Book I, 1-20. Introduction, Text, Commentary. The topic chosen by Wytse Keulen was Genre in Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Related Texts. Like other ancient 'novels', the metamorphoses of Apuleius has no clear-cut generic identity itself, but continually evokes a great number of genres from Greek and Latin literature, from the 'high' genres of tragedy and epic to 'lower' genres such as comedy and mime. Some of the genres it takes up, most notably Roman satire, were themselves already characterised by a mixing of the 'high' and 'low', so that the resulting texture is sometimes hard to disentangle; at the same time, the shifts and shocks of generic reference significantly contribute, as Apuleius programmatically announces in the prologue, to the reader's delight. In this collection, generic play in the metamorphoses is approached from a number of diverse angles: some articles analyse individual passages, others consider specific genres, while there are also discussions of related texts such as Apuleius' oratorical works and the hybrid fictions of Lucian. No claim is made for a complete or systematic coverage of the subject; in that sense, the collection itself participates in the desultoria scientia that it studies. ... Read more