Narcissus and Pygmalion: Illusion and Spectacle in Ovid's Metamorphoses [Hardcover]

Newly translated into English, Rosati'sNarcissus and Pygmalionsheds light on some crucial junctures in the history of reception and aesthetics through an exploration of the eponymous characters as they appear in Ovid'sMetamorphoses.Nature imitates art--not a paradox from Oscar Wilde's pen, but instead the bold formulation of the Latin poet Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE), marking a radical turning point in ancient aesthetics, founded on the principle ofmimesis. For Ovid, art is independent of reality, not its mirror: by enhancingphantasia, the artist's creative imagination and the simulacrum's primacy over reality, Ovid opens up unexplored perspectives for future European literature and art. Through an examination of Narcissus and Pygmalion, figures of illusion and desire, who are the protagonists of two major episodes of theMetamorphoses, Rosati sheds light on some crucial junctures in the history of reception and aesthetics.Narcissus and Pygmalionhas, since its first publication in Italian, contributed to the poet's critical fortunes over the past few decades through its combination of sophisticated literary critical thinking and patient argument applied to the poetics of self-reflexivity and, in particular, to the fundamental interface between the verbal and the visual in theMetamorphoses. A substantial introduction accompanies this new translation into English, positioning Rosati's work anew in the forefront of current discussions of Ovidian aesthetics and intermediality, in the wake of the postmodern culture of thesimulacrum.Introduction1. Narcissus or Literary Illusion2. Pygmalion or the Poetics of Fiction3. The Spectacle of AppearancesGianpiero Rosati,Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa)Gianpiero Rosati is Professor of Latin literature at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa). He previously held teaching positions at the Universities of Florence, Pavia, and Udine. Rosati provides refined and insighl#U