Overview

Regine May discusses the use of drama as an intertext in the work of the 2nd century Latin author Apuleius, who wrote the only complete extant Latin novel, the Metamorphoses, in which a young man is turned into a donkey by magic. Apuleius uses drama, especially comedy, as a basic underlying texture, and invites his readers to use their knowledge of contemporary drama in interpreting the fate of his protagonist and the often comic or tragic situations in which he finds himself. May employs a close study of the Latin text and detailed comparison with the corpus of dramatic texts from antiquity, as well as discussion of stock features of ancient drama, especially of comedy, in order to explain some features of the novel which have so far baffled Apuleian scholarship, including the enigmatic ending. All Latin and Greek has been translated into English.

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9780199202928

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Reviews

Regine May shows in her book an excellent knowledge of Apuleius' writings, Roman literature in general, and a rich field of secondary literature. Eva Stehlikova, Listy Filologicke May's thorough study does much to ground Apuleius in the intellectual world of the Second Sophistic and draws welcome attention to the many dramatic intertexts, especially within the Metamorphoses. Niall W. Slater, Scholia May's merit is to have made a detailed survey and to have extended the intertextual analysis to the genre of mime Lucia Pasetti, Bryn Mawr Classical Review May has raised a number of issues, not least of which is the way we define Greco-Roman drama in general and evaluate New Comedy in particular. May reinforces the case that Apuleius both confirms and confounds the roles of an apparently familiar stage cast of comic, farcical, tragic and paratragic characters. It is testament to the excellence of May's book that Apuleian scholars will dwell and draw upon her methodology and her conclusions in the continuing conversations they conduct and publish upon the Metamorphoses. - Paula James, The Open University

May has raised a number of issues, not least of which is the way we define Greco-Roman drama in general and evaluate New Comedy in particular. May reinforces the case that Apuleius both confirms and confounds the roles of an apparently familiar stage cast of comic, farcical, tragic and paratragic characters. It is testament to the excellence of May's book that Apuleian scholars will dwell and draw upon her methodology and her conclusions in the continuing conversations they conduct and publish upon the Metamorphoses. - Paula James, The Open University

Regine May shows in her book an excellent knowledge of Apuleius' writings, Roman literature in general, and a rich field of secondary literature. Eva Stehlikova, Listy Filologicke May's thorough study does much to ground Apuleius in the intellectual world of the Second Sophistic and draws welcome attention to the many dramatic intertexts, especially within the Metamorphoses. Niall W. Slater, Scholia May's merit is to have made a detailed survey and to have extended the intertextual analysis to the genre of mime Lucia Pasetti, Bryn Mawr Classical Review May has raised a number of issues, not least of which is the way we define Greco-Roman drama in general and evaluate New Comedy in particular. May reinforces the case that Apuleius both confirms and confounds the roles of an apparently familiar stage cast of comic, farcical, tragic and paratragic characters. It is testament to the excellence of May's book that Apuleian scholars will dwell and draw upon her methodology and her conclusions in the continuing conversations they conduct and publish upon the Metamorphoses. - Paula James, The Open University

"""May has raised a number of issues, not least of which is the way we define Greco-Roman drama in general and evaluate New Comedy in particular. May reinforces the case that Apuleius both confirms and confounds the roles of an apparently familiar stage cast of comic, farcical, tragic and paratragic characters. It is testament to the excellence of May's book that Apuleian scholars will dwell and draw upon her methodology and her conclusions in the continuing conversations they conduct and publish upon the Metamorphoses."" - Paula James, The Open University"

Author Information

Regine May is Fellow and Tutor in Classical Languages and Literature at Merton College, University of Oxford.

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