Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Kate Atkinson’s short story collection, Not the End of the World (2002), has typically puzzled reviewers, unsure of its goals and hesitant about its success. This essay offers an alternative, by reading the collection through the lens of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Atkinson clearly signals her debt to Ovi...
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Université Lille-3
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Dictynna |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/dictynna/3873 |
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| author | Barbara Weiden Boyd |
| author_facet | Barbara Weiden Boyd |
| author_sort | Barbara Weiden Boyd |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Kate Atkinson’s short story collection, Not the End of the World (2002), has typically puzzled reviewers, unsure of its goals and hesitant about its success. This essay offers an alternative, by reading the collection through the lens of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Atkinson clearly signals her debt to Ovid in several epigraphs, but the overall impression left with readers who know Ovid only as a repository of classical myth has caused Atkinson’s remarkably inventive reception of Ovidian poetics to be misread. Atkinson uses the Latin poet’s interest in change and its often strange permutations as a way of interrogating contemporary concerns about consumerism, environmental degradation, and cultural forgetfulness, against a backdrop of post-apocalyptic fantasy. The result is both a new appreciation for Atkinson’s brilliance and a fresh approach to Ovid’s transformative masterpiece. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1865338db12943d9b0c2c74edcecccbd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1969-4202 1765-3142 |
| language | deu |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Université Lille-3 |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Dictynna |
| spelling | doaj-art-1865338db12943d9b0c2c74edcecccbd2025-01-30T14:29:03ZdeuUniversité Lille-3Dictynna1969-42021765-31422024-12-012110.4000/12vk5Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s MetamorphosesBarbara Weiden BoydKate Atkinson’s short story collection, Not the End of the World (2002), has typically puzzled reviewers, unsure of its goals and hesitant about its success. This essay offers an alternative, by reading the collection through the lens of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Atkinson clearly signals her debt to Ovid in several epigraphs, but the overall impression left with readers who know Ovid only as a repository of classical myth has caused Atkinson’s remarkably inventive reception of Ovidian poetics to be misread. Atkinson uses the Latin poet’s interest in change and its often strange permutations as a way of interrogating contemporary concerns about consumerism, environmental degradation, and cultural forgetfulness, against a backdrop of post-apocalyptic fantasy. The result is both a new appreciation for Atkinson’s brilliance and a fresh approach to Ovid’s transformative masterpiece.https://journals.openedition.org/dictynna/3873OvidMetamorphosesKate Atkinsonapocalypse/apocalypticPythagoreanismenvironment |
| spellingShingle | Barbara Weiden Boyd Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s Metamorphoses Dictynna Ovid Metamorphoses Kate Atkinson apocalypse/apocalyptic Pythagoreanism environment |
| title | Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s Metamorphoses |
| title_full | Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s Metamorphoses |
| title_fullStr | Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s Metamorphoses |
| title_full_unstemmed | Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s Metamorphoses |
| title_short | Apocalypse Now? Kate Atkinson Reads Ovid’s Metamorphoses |
| title_sort | apocalypse now kate atkinson reads ovid s metamorphoses |
| topic | Ovid Metamorphoses Kate Atkinson apocalypse/apocalyptic Pythagoreanism environment |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/dictynna/3873 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT barbaraweidenboyd apocalypsenowkateatkinsonreadsovidsmetamorphoses |