The exemplarity of abandonment: elegiac epistle and intratextuality in Heroides

• Grant number: 14/05067-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: June 01, 2014
• End date: July 22, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Languages
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Pinheiro Hasegawa
• Grantee: Cecilia Marcela Ugartemendía
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/11829-1 - Cross-genre in Heroides, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This research analyses the different intratextual relations between the first fourteen epistles from Ovid’s Heroides, which allow the reader to understand them not just as a mere group of In die form von Briefen gekleidete monologue (Monologues dressed up as epistles) (Auhagen, 1999: 90) but as pieces that receive a new meaning when read with the others, because it is possible to understand that the poet establishes a dialogue between the epistles and enables the heroines to learn one from another, taking the other’s stories as an exemplum. Nevertheless, the absence of a praeceptor amoris leads the heroines to misinterpretation of these exempla and, because of the lack of an ars amandi, they fail in trying to convince their lovers to come back to them. Therefore, the reader receives the epistles as a great exemplum of what not to do and as a justification of the need of a praeceptor. The overlapping of both the elegiac and the epistolary genres enables the letters to be an appropriate mean to convey an exemplum, due to the didactic features of both genres. Thus, through the genre juxtaposition, the poet practices the polyeideia, later intensely explored in Metamorphoses. However, in considering that the epistles relate between them, it is undisputed that each of them can be read autonomously. Instead, this research aims to prove that there is no nitida legge compositiva (Barchiesi, 1987: 63) imposing the autonomy of the letters as the only possible interpretation; each of them can be read not only as a monologue and, therefore, as self-sufficient, but at the same time establishing a dialogue with the others. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

UGARTEMENDÍA, Cecilia Marcela. The exemplarity of abandonment: elegiac epistle and intratextuality in Heroides. 2016. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.