A Comedy of Storytelling - Theatricality and Narrative in Apuleius' 'Golden Ass'. Dissertationsschrift

Current interpretations of Apuleius' 'Golden Ass' cover the entire spectrum from a religious autobiography to an incongruous collection of titillating stories. The goal of this book is to explain the extraordinary polyphony of Apuleius' novel as a product of the 2nd century CE context, in which elite culture (philosophy and sophistic oratory) and popular entertainment not only share the same venues and appeal to the same audiences but also engage in active exchange of subject matter and histrionic techniques. The book argues that Apuleius' narrative represents a mosaic of discourses each of which possesses a respectable pedigree in the world of Greco-Roman 'paideia'. It further traces the ensuing ambiguity to the Second Sophistic rhetoric and concludes that the particular thrill of reading the novel consists in the ironic frustration of any attempt to discover a centripetal force in an irreducibly multi-polar text.(Der Autor ist Preisträger des "Heidelberger Förderpreises für klassisch-philologische Theoriebildung" 2009)

Summary

Current interpretations of Apuleius' 'Golden Ass' cover the entire spectrum from a religious autobiography to an incongruous collection of titillating stories. The goal of this book is to explain the extraordinary polyphony of Apuleius' novel as a product of the 2nd century CE context, in which elite culture (philosophy and sophistic oratory) and popular entertainment not only share the same venues and appeal to the same audiences but also engage in active exchange of subject matter and histrionic techniques. The book argues that Apuleius' narrative represents a mosaic of discourses each of which possesses a respectable pedigree in the world of Greco-Roman 'paideia'. It further traces the ensuing ambiguity to the Second Sophistic rhetoric and concludes that the particular thrill of reading the novel consists in the ironic frustration of any attempt to discover a centripetal force in an irreducibly multi-polar text.
(Der Autor ist Preisträger des "Heidelberger Förderpreises für klassisch-philologische Theoriebildung" 2009)

Product details

• Authors: Alexander Kirichenko
• Publisher: Universitätsverlag Winter
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 13.08.2010
• EAN: 9783825357207
• ISBN: 978-3-8253-5720-7
• No. of pages: 248
• Weight: 539 g
• Series: Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften / Neue Folge, 2. Reihe; Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften, NF; Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften; Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften / Neue Folge, 2. Reihe; Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften / The Library of The Other Antiquity
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Classical linguistics / literary studies; Rhetorik, Apuleius : Erläuterungen zum Werk, Populärliteratur, Plutarch, Petronius, Apuleius, Sophistik, Antike Komödie, Mimus, ägyptische Religion, Satire /in der Antike, Komödie /Antike, Populartheater