Ancient Lit, Queer Potentials

A lecture in collaboration with Dr. Carman Romano! This offering is fully funded by grant monies, so your ticket + copies of both books is free. All you'll need to do is reserve your spot with us! This event takes place on Saturday, September 6 from 2-4 PM at the Bala Cynwyd Library, located at 131 Old Lancaster Road, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004.

With AL/QP, Dr. Carman Romano will (re-)introduce ancient mythic literature and its latent queer potential. Myths are, after all, some of the world’s oldest fantasy and science fiction.

We’ll use Stephanie McCarter’s scintillating new translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Helen Morales’ Antigone Rising to ground and support our discussion. By focusing on some of Ovid’s stories that deal with gender, sex, sexualized violence, and sexuality, we’ll empower ourselves to use literary myths to think about and interrogate these concepts.

:: syllabus :: 

Metamorphoses
+ Daphne, Io, and Syrinx (Book 1); p. 23-33
+ Tiresias and Narcissus & Echo (Book 3); p. 79-85
+ Salmacis (Book 4); p. 105-108
+ Iphis (Book 9); p. 272-276
+ and Book 10 through Orpheus’ demise in Book 11. p. 277-309

Antigone Rising
+ Chapters 5 and 8

To begin the session, Carman will answer any questions that participants have about the epic Metamorphoses, mythmaking, Ovid, or similar. She’ll give a brief overview of the stories we read to ensure all are on the same page. We’ll then move to consider Morales’ work in Antigone Rising on what she calls the “subversive” potential of myths, and begin our discussion. Questions might include: How are gender, sex, violence, and/or sexuality represented in Ovid’s myths? Is the poet critical of the actions and events he’s portraying? Does that matter for our contemporary reading of the Metamorphoses? What does it really mean for a myth—or any fiction, for that matter—to be queer or feminist? Are any of Ovid’s stories? And most importantly: If some or all of Ovid’s stories are neither, could we reimagine them?

This class will take place at the Bala Cynywyd Library on Saturday, September @ 2-4 PM.