Metamorphosis

Harold Skulsky

Published by Harvard University Press 1981

Metamorphosis

The Mind in Exile

Harold Skulsky

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674424982

Overview
Contents

About this book

Fusing the methods of comparative literature, intellectual history, and philosophical analysis, Harold Skulsky explores a motif that has fascinated storytellers since antiquity: the miraculous transformation of a character into a plant, an animal, or a different human being.

The thesis of the study is that the fantasy of metamorphosis challenges the narrator and his audience to confront certain basic anxieties about the human condition: Is the mind reducible to physical properties? What constitutes personhood? How does physical form affect personal identity and continuity of the self?

Testing instances in which these and related perplexities appear in literature, Skulsky systematically and provocatively interprets ten major illustrative texts drawn from diverse epochs and languages, including the works of Homer, Ovid, Apuleius, Marie de France, Dante, Donne, Spenser, Keats, Kafka, and Woolf. Through Skulsky's masterly analysis the victims of metamorphosis in narrative literature--whether werewolf, ass, beetle, swine, or tree--provide a profound insight into the complexities of human experience.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION: The Problem and the Method Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CIRCE AND ODYSSEUS: Metamorphosis as Enchantment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	10
OVID'S EPIC Metamorphosis as Metaphysical Doubt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
THE GOLDEN ASS Metamorphosis as Satire and Mystery Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
THE WEREWOLF OF MARIE de FRANCE: Metamorphosis Alienation and Grace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
THIEVES AND SUICIDES IN THE INFERNO Metamorphosis as the State of Sin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
SPENSER'S MALBECCO Metamorphosis Monomania and Abstraction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
DONNE'S "SULLEN WRIT' Metamorphosis as Satire and Metaphysics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
LAMIA AND THE SOPHIST Metamorphosis as the Inexplicable Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
THE ORDEAL OF GREGOR SAMSA Metamorphosis as Alienation without Grace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
VIRGINIA WOOLFS ORLANDO Metamorphosis as the Quest for Freedom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 244
Keywords: Metamorphosis in literature.; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; PHILOSOPHY / General

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674424982

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1981
ISBN: 9780674424975