No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
THISBE'S NOVEL: WRITING ROMANCE IN HELIODORUS’ AETHIOPICA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2022
Extract
Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies thoroughly unravels its own ‘marriage plot’. Narrating the romance of the golden Lancelot (‘Lotto’) and the mysterious Mathilde from each protagonist's perspective in turn, Groff's novel exposes countless cracks in the decades-long relationship between a pair of twenty-first-century college sweethearts. The second half of the novel is particularly haunted by a sadomasochistic and dubiously consensual relationship between Mathilde and a wealthy older man upon whom she has become financially dependent, a subplot that includes vivid and erotic descriptions of sexual humiliation and subjugation. Groff is certainly not the only modern author to explicitly and self-consciously interrogate the terms of the romantic novel as such: Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot announces its generic play in its title.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ramus 2022
Footnotes
Many thanks to Nicole Brown, Lauren Curtis, Carolyn Laferrière, and Naomi Weiss for helping me to think through this work at a crucial stage, and to Mario Telò, who discussed these ideas with me at the very beginning. This article also benefited greatly from Helen Morales’ editorial insight and the perceptive comments of an anonymous reader at Ramus.
References
Allen, D. (2000), The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Classical Athens (Princeton, NJ).Google Scholar
Allen, D. (2004), ‘Angry Bees, Wasps, and Jurors: The Symbolic Politics of ὀργή in Athens’, in Braund, S. and Most, G. (eds), Ancient Anger: Perspectives from Homer to Galen (Cambridge), 76–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, M. (1997), ‘The ΣΩΦΡΟΣΥΝΕ of Persinna and the Romantic Strategy of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica‘, CPh 92, 303–32.Google Scholar
Bartsch, S. (1989), Decoding the Ancient Novel: The Reader and the Role of Description in Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius (Princeton, NJ).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bird, R. (2017), ‘Virtue Obscured: Theagenes’ Sōphrosunē in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica’, Ancient Narrative 14, 195–208.Google Scholar
Bird, R. (2019), ‘Heliodorus’ Charicleia and Euripides’ Hippolytus: Surviving Sōphrosunē’, Ancient Narrative 27, 193–210.Google Scholar
Boone, J.A. (1987), Tradition Counter Tradition: Love and the Form of Fiction (Chicago, IL).Google Scholar
Bowie, E. (1994), ‘The Readership of Greek Novels in the Ancient World’, in Tatum (1994), 435–60.Google Scholar
Bowie, E. (1995), ‘Names and a Gem: Aspects of Allusion in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica’, in Innes, D., Hine, H., and Pelling, C. (eds), Ethics and Rhetoric: Classical Essays for Donald Russell on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday (Oxford), 269–80.Google Scholar
Briand, M. (2018), ‘Achilles Tatius’ Ecphrasis of Abused Female Bodies: Interplays of Gendered Metafiction and Intensity’, in Cueva, Harrison, Mason, Owens, and Schwartz (2018), 127–48.Google Scholar
Burrus, V. (2005), ‘Mimicking Virgins: Colonial Ambivalence and the Ancient Romance’, Arethusa 38, 48–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capettini, E. (2018), ‘Charicleia the Bacchante: Erōs and Genealogy in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica’, in Cueva, Harrison, Mason, Owens, and Schwartz (2018), 195–220.Google Scholar
Ceccarelli, P. (2013), Ancient Greek Letter Writing: A Cultural History (600 BC—150 BC) (Oxford).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceccarelli, P., Doering, L., Fögen, T., and Gildenhard, I. (eds) (2018), Letters and Communities: Studies in the Socio-Political Dimensions of Ancient Epistolography (Oxford).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chew, K. (2003), ‘The Representation of Violence in the Greek Novels and Martyr Accounts’, in Panayotakis, S., Zimmerman, M., and Keulen, W. (eds), The Ancient Novel and Beyond (Leiden), 129–41.Google Scholar
Chew, K. (2007), ‘Divine Epistemology: The Relationship between Speech and Writing in the Aithiopika’, in Rimell (2007), 279–98.Google Scholar
Cohen, C. (1997), ‘Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 4, 437–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cribbiore, R. (2001), ‘Windows on a Woman's World: Some Letters from Roman Egypt’, in Lardinois, A. and McClure, L. (eds), Making Silence Speak: Women's Voices in Greek Literature and Society (Princeton, NJ), 223–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cueva, E. (2004), The Myths of Fiction: Studies in the Canonical Greek Novels (Ann Arbor, MI).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cueva, E., Harrison, S., Mason, H., Owens, W., and Schwartz, S. (eds) (2018), Re-Wiring the Ancient Novel, Vol. 1: Greek Novels (Eelde).Google Scholar
Egger, B. (1988), ‘Zu den Frauenrollen im griechischen Roman: die Frau als Heldin und Leserin’, Groningen Colloquia on the Novel 1, 33–66.Google Scholar
Elmer, D. (2008), ‘Intertextuality, Paternity, and the Nile River in the Aithiopika’, TAPhA 138, 411–50.Google Scholar
Eng, D., Halberstam, J., and Muñoz, J. (2005), ‘Introduction: What's Queer about Queer Studies Now?’, Social Text 84–5, 1–17.Google Scholar
Futre Pinheiro, M.P. (2014), ‘Heliodorus, the Ethiopian Story’, in Cueva, E. and Byrne, S. (eds), A Companion to the Ancient Novel (Malden, MA), 76–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldhill, S. (1995), Foucault's Virginity: Ancient Erotic Fiction and the History of Sexuality (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldhill, S. (2016), A Very Queer Family Indeed: Sex, Religion, and the Bensons in Victorian England (Chicago, IL).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halberstam, J. (2005), In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (New York).Google Scholar
Hilton, J. (1998), ‘An Ethiopian Paradox: Heliodorus, Aithiopika 4.8’, in Hunter (1998a), 79–92.Google Scholar
Hodkinson, O., Rosenmeyer, P., and Bracke, E. (eds) (2013), Epistolary Narratives in Ancient Greek Literature (Leiden).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, R.L. (1998b), ‘The Aithiopika of Heliodorus: Beyond Interpretation?’, in Hunter (1998a), 40–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, R.L. (2005), ‘“Philip the Philosopher” on the Aithiopika of Heliodorus’, in Harrison, S., Paschalis, M., and Frangoulidis, S. (eds), Metaphor and the Ancient Novel (Eelde), 123–38.Google Scholar
Illouz, E. (2014), Hard-Core Romance: Fifty Shades of Grey, Best-Sellers, and Society (Chicago, IL).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasprzyk, D. (2017), ‘Les Aigyptiaka de Cnémon (Héliodore, Éthiopiques)’, Ancient Narrative 14, 149–74.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (1994), Sexual Symmetry: Love in the Ancient Novel and Related Genres (Princeton, NJ).Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (2006), The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks: Studies in Aristotle and Classical Literature (Toronto).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koskenniemi, H. (1956), Studien zur Idee und Phraseologie des griechischen Briefes bis 400 n.Chr. (Helsinki).Google Scholar
Lefteratou, A. (2018), Mythological Narratives: The Bold and Faithful Heroines of the Greek Novel (Berlin).Google Scholar
Létoublon, F. (1993), Les lieux communs du roman. Stéréotypes grecs d'aventure et d'amour (Leiden).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Love, H. (2007), Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History (Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
Lumb, T.W., and Rattenbury, R.M. (eds) (1960), Héliodore: “Les Éthiopiques (Théagène et Chariclée)”, 2nd ed., tr. Maillon, J. (Paris).Google Scholar
Morales, H. (2004), Vision and Narrative in Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Morales, H. (2022), ‘Visualizing assemblages: Demaenete, Thisbe's bed-trick, and the creation of Charicleia (1.15–17)’, in Whitmarsh, T. and Repath, I. (eds), Reading Heliodorus’ Aethiopica (Oxford), 20–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, J.R. (1989), ‘The Story of Knemon in Heliodoros’ Aithiopika’, JHS 109, 99–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, J.R. (1995), ‘The Greek Novel: Towards a Sociology of Production and Reception’, in Powell, A. (ed.), The Greek World (London), 130–52.Google Scholar
Morgan, J.R. (2013), ‘The Erotics of Reading Fiction: Text and Body in Heliodorus’, in Bréchet, C., Videau, A., and Webb, R. (eds), Théories et pratiques de la fiction à l’époque impériale (Paris), 225–36.Google Scholar
Morgan, J.R., and Repath, I. (2019), ‘Mistresses and Servant-women, and the Slavery and Mastery of Love in Heliodoros’, Ancient Narrative 23, 139–60.Google Scholar
Mueller, M. (2011), ‘Phaedra's Defixio: Scripting Sophrosune in Euripides’ Hippolytus’, ClAnt 30, 148–77.Google Scholar
ní Mheallaigh, K. (2014), Reading Fiction with Lucian: Fakes, Freaks, and Hyperreality (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, S. (2012), ‘Maculate Conception: Sexual Ideology and Creative Authority in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica’, AJPh 133, 301–22.Google Scholar
Ormand, K. (2010), ‘Testing Virginity in Achilles Tatius and Heliodorus’, Ramus 39, 160–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulsen, T. (1992), Inszenierung des Schicksals. Tragödie und Komödie im Roman des Heliodor (Trier).Google Scholar
Ramelli, I. (2009), ‘Les vertus de la chasteté et de la piété dans les romans grecs et les vertus des chrétiens: le cas d'Achille Tatius et d'Héliodore’, in Pouderon, B. and Bost-Pouderon, C. (eds), Passions, vertus et vices dans l'ancient roman (Lyon), 149–68.Google Scholar
Reig Calpe, M. (2010), ‘Les Etiòpiques: la novel⋅la com a paròdia dels gèneres dramàtics’, Studia Philologica Valentina 12, 105–17.Google Scholar
Repath, I. (2013), ‘Yours Truly? Letters in Achilles Tatius’, in Hodkinson, Rosenmeyer, and Bracke (2013), 237–63.Google Scholar
Rimell, V. (ed.) (2007), Seeing Tongues, Hearing Scripts: Orality and Representation in the Ancient Novel. Ancient Narrative Supplements 7 (Groningen).Google Scholar
Robiano, P. (2007), ‘La voix et la main: la lettre intime dans Chéréas et Callirhoé,’ in Rimell (2007), 201–22.Google Scholar
Rosenmeyer, P. (2001), Ancient Epistolary Fictions: The Letter in Greek Literature (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Rosenmeyer, P. (2006), Ancient Greek Literary Letters: Selections in Translation (London).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scippacercola, N. (2010), ‘La violenza nel romanzo greco’, Lexis: Poetica, retorica e comunicazione nella tradizione classica 28, 399–431.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, E.K. (ed.) (1997), Novel Gazing: Queer Readings in Fiction (Durham, NC).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, D. (1994), The Tyrant's Writ: Myths and Images of Writing in Ancient Greece (Princeton, NJ).Google Scholar
Telò, M. (2011), ‘The Eagle's Gaze in the Opening of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica‘, AJPh 132, 581–613.Google Scholar
Wesseling, B. (1988), ‘The Audience of the Ancient Novel’, Groningen Colloquia on the Novel 1, 67–79.Google Scholar
Whitmarsh, T. (2001), ‘Written on the Body: Ecphrasis, Perception and Deception in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica’, Ramus 31, 111–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmarsh, T. (ed.) (2008a), The Cambridge Companion to the Greek and Roman Novel (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmarsh, T. (2008b), ‘The Birth of a Prodigy: Heliodorus and the Genealogy of Hellenism’, in Hunter (2008a), 93–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmarsh, T. (2011), Narrative and Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel: Returning Romance (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmarsh, T., and Bartsch, S. (2008), ‘Narrative’, in Whitmarsh (2008a), 237–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, A. (2012), The Gift of Correspondence in Classical Rome: Friendship in Cicero's Ad Familiares and Seneca's Moral Epistles (Madison, WI).Google Scholar