Ovid and the Politics of Emotion in Elizabethan England
Elizabethan English culture is saturated with tales and figures from Ovid's "Metamorphoses." While most of these narratives interrogate metamorphosis and transformation, many tales — such as those of Philomela, Hecuba, or Orpheus — also highlight heightened states of emotion, especially in powerless or seemingly powerless characters. When these tales are translated and retold in the new cultural context of Renaissance England, a distinct politics of Ovidian emotion emerges. Through intertextual readings in diverse cultural contexts, "Ovid and the Politics of Emotion in Elizabethan England" reveals the ways these representations helped redefine emotions and the political efficacy of emotional expression in 16-century England.
Bio
Cora Fox is an associate professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University.
Praise for this book
An excellent book on a subject that is crucial to modern critical theory in the wake of deconstruction, new historicism, and gender studies; a brilliant examination of Ovid and his relation to gender studies. Fox's Ovidian reading of Titus is the most brilliant reading of that underestimated play ... 'Ovid and the Politics of Emotion in Elizabethan England' belongs in that select group of books dealing with Renaissance literature and classical authors like Leonard Barkan and Jonathan Bate.
Thomas P. Roche Professor of English, Princeton University
