Jane Alison
In re-presenting classical literature to non-scholarly audiences, I’ve worked in three genres of narrative. In fiction, I’ve reimagined Ovid as he wrote Metamorphoses and tragically transfigured his own life. In memoir, I’ve explored how classical myth and tragedy—especially in works of Hesiod, Aeschylus, Euripides, Ovid, Apuleius—helped me configure patterns in my own younger life. And in translating Ovid’s tales of sexual identity and change, I’ve tried to reveal to a younger audience the psychological intelligence of those remarkable stories, how subtly they work as metaphorized miniatures of human experience, especially when young bodies first transform and encounter others. My talk will explore how ancient narratives can continue to give form, beauty, and perspective to our own lives-in-progress: how we can read ourselves inside their structures even now.