Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds Ways of Telling the Self

by Warner, Marina

• ISBN13: 9780198187264
• ISBN10: 0198187262
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Metamorphosis is a dynamic principle of creation, vital to natural processes of generation and evolution, growth and decay, yet it also threatens personal identity if human beings are subject to a continual process of bodily transformation. Shape-shifting also belongs in the landscape of magic, witchcraft, and wonder, and enlivens classical mythology, early modern fairy tales and uncanny fictions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds , acclaimed novelist and critic Marina Warner explores the metaphorical power of metamorphoses in the evocation of human personality. Beginning with Ovid's great poem, The Metamorphoses , as the founding text of the metamorphic tradition, she takes us on a journey of exploration, into the fantastic art of Hieronymous Bosch, the legends of the Taino people, the life cycle of the butterfly, the myth of Leda and the Swan, the genealogy of the Zombie, the pantomime of Aladdin, the haunting of doppelgangers, the coming of photography, and the late fiction of Lewis Carroll. Beautifully illustrated and elegantly written, Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds is sure to appeal to all readers interested in mythology, art, and literature.

Author Biography

Marina Warner is a prize-winning novelist, cultural historian, and critic. Her most recent novel is The Leto Bundle. Among her acclaimed non-fiction works are From the Beast to the Blonde and No Go the Bogeyman. She lives in London.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xii
Introduction	1	(28)
Mutating	29	(46)
Hatching	75	(44)
Splitting	119	(42)
Doubling	161	(44)
Epilogue	205	(8)
Notes	213	(38)
Picture Sources	251	(2)
Index	253