Unity in Diversity: A Study of Apuleius' Metamorphoses.

272 p. From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). Very lightly soiled dirt title page. Otherwise in very good condition. - Content: The Metamorphoses of Apuleius is one of the earliest novels in European literature. In it, Lucius, who has been transformed into an ass, relates his bizarre adventures culminating in his return to human form and initiation into the cult of Isis and Osiris. Thinking that many modern interpretations of the Metamorphoses overstress the novel's reflection of the spiritual climate of the 2nd century A. D. while neglecting its individuality and originality, the author of the present work concentrates her attention on the literary structure and unity of the novel. She identifies as unifying factors the first-person narrator Lucius and, on a more subtle level, the recurrence of themes with variations, a kind of literary metamorphosis which mirrors the main theme of the work. In this study Apuleius is seen not to be capitulating passively to the ''spirit of the age", but to be capitalizing upon it and exploiting it for his own creative ends. ISBN 9783487078205 Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 501