Modern and Postmodern Reinterpretation of Ovid’s Myths of Metamorphosis in the Novel The Last World

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Author

shahid Beheshti University Tehran/ Germany

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 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.

Keywords

References

- Anz, Thomas. „Spiel mit der Überlieferung“. In: Die Erfindung der Welt. Zum Werk Christoph Ransmayr. Hrsg. von Uwe Wittstock. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1997: S. 120-132.
- Epple, Thomas. Christoph Ransmayr, Die letzte Welt. Interpretation von Thomas Epple. 1. Aufl., München: Oldenburg, 1992.
- Geppert, Hans Vilmar. Der historische Roman. Geschichte umerzählt. Tübingen: Narr Francke, 2009.
- Grimm, Florian. Reise in die Vergangenheit. Tendenzen des postmodernen Geschichtsromans. Fankfurt; Berlin: Peter Lang, 2006.
- Horkheimer, Max und Adorno, Theodor W. Dialektik der Aufklärung. Philosophische Fragmente. 11. Aufl., Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1988.
- Horkheimer, Max. Zur Kritik der instrumentellen Vernunft. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1974.
- Hutcheon, Linda. „Intertextuality, Parody and the Discourse of History“. In: Postmodern Literature. Translated by Payam Yaydanjoo. Tehran: Markaz, 2002: S. 275-301.
- Lyotard, Jean-François. „Universal History and Cultural Differences”. In. Towards the Postmodern. Translated by Payam Yaydanjoo. Tehran: Markaz, 2002: S. 214-232. 
- Lyotard, Jean-François. Das Postmoderne Wissen, ein Bericht. Wien: Passagen Verlag, 1999.
- MacHale, Brian. Postmodernist Fiction. Translated by Ali Massoumi, Terhran: Ghoghnoos, 2013.
- Friedrich Nietzsche. Also sprach Zarathustra. 7. Aufl., Baden-Baden: Insel Verlag, 1982.
- Ransmayr Christoph. The Last World. Translated by Mahmmoud Haddadi, Tehran: Pariyan, 2014.
- Ransmayr, Christoph. Die letzte Welt. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1991.
- Wittstock, Uwe (Hg.). Die Erfindung der Welt. Zum Werk Christoph Ransmayr. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.1997.
- Zima, Peter V. „Diskurse der Negativität von Mallarmé und Valéry zu Adorno und Lyotard “. In: Arcadia, Bd. 33, Heft 1, 1998: S. 285-311. 
Critical Language and Literary studies
Volume 17, Issue 25
January 2021
Pages 93-115

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics