Narcissus and Pygmalion: Illusion and Spectacle in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780198852438)

Nature imitates art--not a paradox from Oscar Wilde's pen, but instead the bold formulation of the Latin poet Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE), marking a radical turning point in ancient aesthetics, founded on the principle of mimesis. For Ovid, art is independent of reality, not its mirror: by enhancing phantasia, the artist's creative imagination and the simulacrum's primacy over reality, Ovid opens up unexplored perspectives for future European literature and art. Through an examination of Narcissus and Pygmalion, figures of illusion and desire, who are the protagonists of two major episodes of the Metamorphoses, Rosati sheds light on some crucial junctures in the history of reception and aesthetics. Narcissus and Pygmalion has, since its first publication in Italian, contributed to the poet's critical fortunes over the past few decades through its combination of sophisticated literary critical thinking and patient argument applied to the poetics of self-reflexivity and, in particular, to the fundamental interface between the verbal and the visual in the Metamorphoses. A substantial introduction accompanies this new translation into English, positioning Rosati's work anew in the forefront of current discussions of Ovidian aesthetics and intermediality, in the wake of the postmodern culture of the simulacrum.

Author: Gianpiero Rosati
ISBN-10: 0198852436
ISBN-13: 9780198852438
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 03/21/2022
Pages: 202
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.86lbs
Size: 8.78h x 5.77w x 0.68d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2023