A web of fantasies
Subtitle: gaze, image, and gender in Ovid's Metamorphoses
By: Patricia B. Salzman-Mitchell.
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Columbus
Language: eng
Number of pages: 262
Subjects: Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D.; Fables, Latin -- History and criticism.; Mythology, Classical, in literature.; Feminism and literature -- Rome.; Metamorphosis in literature.; Sex role in literature.; Women in literature.; Gaze in literature.
Description: "Drawing on recent scholarship in art, film, literary theory, and gender studies, A Web of Fantasies examines the complexities, symbolism, and interactions between gaze and image in Ovid's Metamorphoses and forms a gender-sensitive perspective. It is a feminist study of Ovid's epic, which includes many stories about change, in which discussions of viewers, viewing, and imagery strive to illuminate Ovid's constructions of male and female. Patricia Salzman-Mitchell discusses the text from the perspective of three types of gazes: of characters looking, of the poet who narrates visually charged stories, and of the reader who "sees" the woven images in the text. Arguing against certain theorists who deny the possibility of any feminine vision in a male-authored poem, the author maintains that the female point of view can be released through the traditional feminine occupation of weaving, featuring the woven images of Arachne (involved in a weaving contest in which she tried to best the goddess Athena, who turned her into a spider) and Philomela (who had her tongue cut out, so had to weave a tapestry depicting her rape and mutilation)." "The book observes that while feminist models of the gaze can create productive readings of the poem, these models are too limited and reductive for such a protean and complex text as Metamorphoses. This work brings forth the pervasive importance of the act of looking in the poem which will affect future readings of Ovid's epic."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Gaze, image, and gender in Ovid's Metamorphoses; title: The intrusive gaze; title: The fixing gaze; title: Phantastic text(iles); title: Women for women, women by women.