Narjes Khodaee
Abstract
Christoph Ransmayer’s novel The Last World is a successful example of the creative reinterpretation of myths. The novel has a dynamic plot, mixes the historical sources about the life of the Roman poet Ovid with borrowed motifs from Metamorphoses, and alternates between premodern and modern time ...
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Christoph Ransmayer’s novel The Last World is a successful example of the creative reinterpretation of myths. The novel has a dynamic plot, mixes the historical sources about the life of the Roman poet Ovid with borrowed motifs from Metamorphoses, and alternates between premodern and modern time levels and worlds. In myth and the history of civilization, the author observes the same destructive forces and phenomena of decay that point to present conditions and future catastrophes. The present essay has examined the peculiar mixture of reception and appropri- ation of the old myths in Ransmayer’s The Last World, as well as their creative reference to the concept of the historical novel. Besides, the philosophical and so- cial aspects of the work have been discussed to relevant theoretical debates. When examining the content-related and formal aspects of the Last World, different nar- rative strategies could be shown: While the intertextual play with known narrative materials, the variable recoding of mythical symbols and the mixing of various spatial and temporal levels can be understood as postmodern traits, this novel has different characteristics characteristic features that mark a closeness to modern works, especially when the novel in impressive pictures and stories thematizes the increase in destructive potentials in cultural history or subliminally criticizes the devastating consequences of instrumental reason in the present.