Apuleius and Drama The Ass on Stage [Hardcover]

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, theMetamorphoses, 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.

1. Introduction
2. Knowledge of Drama and Archaism in the Second Century
3. Drama, Philosophy, and Rhetoric: Apuleius' Minor Works
4. Courtroom Drama: Apuleius' Apologia
5. The Texture of the Metamorphoses
6. The Drama of Aristomenes and Socrates
7. A Parasite in a Comic Household
8. The Risus Festival: Laughing at Laughter
9. Cupid and Psyche: A Divine Comedy
10. Charite: How Comedies Do Not End
11. `Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light': Book 10
12. The End: Isis: Dea ex machina?
13. Conclusion

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