This thesis discusses Ali Smith’s contemporary rewriting of Ovid’s Iphis myth. It will examine how the democratisation of the field of Greek and Roman classical scholarship, through an increase of...Show moreThis thesis discusses Ali Smith’s contemporary rewriting of Ovid’s Iphis myth. It will examine how the democratisation of the field of Greek and Roman classical scholarship, through an increase of female scholars working in this field and the application of concepts from feminist theory to classical texts, enabled Smith in her retelling of the Iphis myth by providing new interpretations for this myth. It will then be examined how Smith formed this new narrative by working within the scholarly framework of Judith Butler’s theories on gender and sexuality, illuminating and foregrounding the issues of gender ambiguity and same-sex relationships that are already present in the original myth. Finally, the importance of intertextuality and epigraphs in Smith’s work will also be taken into account by considering how she engages with the gender confusion and homoerotic tendencies present in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Cymbeline, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Lyly’s Gallathea, providing a literary context for her novel which she uses to support her own narrative and, sometimes, to change the cultural resonance of Elizabethan plays that deal with gender and same-sex relationships.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Griekse en Latijnse taal en cultuur (BA)
closed access
This thesis consists of an interpretation of Ovid's catalogue of trees in his Metamorphoses (10.86-105). This interpretation builds upon three notions apparent in the catalogue of trees: Orpheus'...Show moreThis thesis consists of an interpretation of Ovid's catalogue of trees in his Metamorphoses (10.86-105). This interpretation builds upon three notions apparent in the catalogue of trees: Orpheus' key role, the intratextual allusions in the trees, and the catalogue aspect. I have intended to show how these tree notions contribute to a reading of the catalogue of trees as a mise en abyme, and how this mise en abyme proffers a less common understanding of the words with which Ovid himself describes his Metamorphoses: carmen perpetuum (1.4).Show less
