Seen, not heard: feminea lingua in Ovid's Fasti and the critical gaze

Peter Mark Keegan*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    10 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This chapter tests the degree to which the Fasti is immersed in and co-opted by the prevailing masculinist culture of its time, and compares interpretations of modern critics examining Ovid's (re)presentations of women. It finds some colluding with the poet's conservative phallocentric imperatives on ritual(ized) female activity. It contends that the ways by which Ovid engages in negating, inhibiting, silencing, or slaying women are reflected in modern interpretative practices, and notes the operation of an intertextuality between the criticized and the critic. It offers a reading of Ovid's Regifugium and the rape of Lucretia as a suggested methodology for an interpretation sensitive to sexual(ized) nuances in the Fasti and a way of delimiting and abnegating the perpetuation of the Philomela/Tacita syndrome in contemporary literary-critical and histori(ographi)cal practices.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationOvid's Fasti
    Subtitle of host publicationhistorical readings at its bimellennium
    EditorsGeraldine Herbert-Brown
    Place of PublicationNew York
    PublisherOxford University Press
    Pages129-153
    Number of pages25
    ISBN (Electronic)9780191715457
    ISBN (Print)0198154755, 9780198154754
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2002

    Keywords

    • Critic
    • Criticized
    • Interpretative practices
    • Intertextuality
    • Lucretia
    • Phallocentric imperatives
    • Philomela/Tacita syndrome
    • Ritualised female activity

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