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This dissertation is an examination of metadiegesis in Ovid's Metamorphoses. This is the first time all oral metanarratives, i.e. narratives attributed by Ovid to characters of his own (primary) narrative, are examined together. A further novelty is its consistent use of the model developed by G. Genette, in order to achieve a systematic description of the relevant material, which would facilitate comparison with work on other narrative texts. Recent developments in narrative theory are critically presented in the Introduction and incorporated in the analysis which is arranged in seven chapters.
In these the stories of Lycaon, Syrinx, Cornix, Acoetes, Thisbe, Mars and Venus, Leuconoe, Hermaphrodite, Medusa, Pyreneus, the Contest between the Pierides and the Muses, Latona, the Myrmidones, Cephalus, the Echinades, Baucis and Philemon, Mnestra, Cornucopia, Hercules' birth, Dryope, the song of Orpheus, the stories of Daedalion, the Trachinian wolf, Aesacus, the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs, Periclymenus, Anius' daughters, Galatea, Glaucus, the Cumaean Sibyl, Odysseus' adventures, Diomedes' companions, Anaxarete, Croton's foundation and Virbius are analysed in terms of time (chapter 2), mood (chapter 3), and voice (chapters 4-7). Voice is considered in its various aspects of narrative person and level (chapter 4), pragmatic parameters, i.e. gender, sexuality, age and class (chapter 5), extra-narrative functions (chapter 6), and narratee (chapter 7).
We hope that our work will provide a secure basis for further work on the diegetic level of the poem's narrative and the interpretation of the poem within its historical context. As far as theory is concerned, we hope that our work will contribute to the broadening of narratology's scope in ways that do not invalidate its original qualities.