{"product_id":"playing-gods-andrew-m-feldherr-9780691138145","title":"Playing Gods: Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Politics of Fiction","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book offers a novel interpretation of politics and identity in Ovid's epic poem of transformations, the \u003ci\u003eMetamorphoses\u003c\/i\u003e. Reexamining the emphatically fictional character of the poem, \u003ci\u003ePlaying Gods\u003c\/i\u003e argues that Ovid uses the problem of fiction in the text to redefine the power of poetry in Augustan Rome. The book also provides the fullest account yet of how the poem relates to the range of cultural phenomena that defined and projected Augustan authority, including spectacle, theater, and the visual arts. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Andrew Feldherr argues that a key to the political as well as literary power of the \u003ci\u003eMetamorphoses\u003c\/i\u003e is the way it manipulates its readers' awareness that its stories cannot possibly be true. By continually juxtaposing the imaginary and the real, Ovid shows how a poem made up of fictions can and cannot acquire the authority and presence of other discursive forms. One important way that the poem does this is through narratives that create a \"double vision\" by casting characters as both mythical figures and enduring presences in the physical landscapes of its readers. This narrative device creates the kind of tensions between identification and distance that Augustan Romans would have felt when experiencing imperial spectacle and other contemporary cultural forms. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Full of original interpretations, \u003ci\u003ePlaying Gods\u003c\/i\u003e constructs a model for political readings of fiction that will be useful not only to classicists but to literary theorists and cultural historians in other fields.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Andrew M. Feldherr\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691138141\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691138145\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/05\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.20w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2011","brand":"Andrew M. Feldherr","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48136143995135,"sku":"9780691138145","price":81.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b97128e5-c53a-4999-9fd6-aab2bb65ecb0.jpg?v=1770160805","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/playing-gods-andrew-m-feldherr-9780691138145","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}