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A theoretical study of human metamorphosis in Western literature
Allegories of Writing presents the first full synthesis of allegory theory and literary metamorphosis. It examines the leading themes and the literary transformations of metamorphic narratives. By applying current theories of the text and the subject to metamorphic tales from Homer, Plato, and Apuleius to Keats, Kafka, and Calvino, this book recovers the critical force of metamorphosis in secular Western literature.
The author clarifies the cultural history of literary metamorphosis from the perspective of allegory theory. At the core of the study are the connections among Plato's Phaedrus, Apuleius's Golden Ass, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Keats's Lamia. Other primary texts are arranged around this core by their significant participation in the ironic literary deployment of metamorphic devices.
"Clarke succeeds in linking authors from Plato through Calvino by drawing attention to details that one would not normally notice, and then interpreting them in such a way as to make their relevance apparent." — Irving Massey, State University of New York at Buffalo
Preface
Abbreviations
1. Writing as the Daemonic
2. History of Metamorphic Allegory
3. Metamorphic Subjects
Transformations of Affect
Shame and Disappearance
Political Economy
4. Fabulous Monsters
The Insect
The Basilisk
Life-in-Death
Sharikov
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5. The Gender of Metamorphosis
The Apuleian Psyche
Circe's Metamorphoses
The Changeling Boy
Lamia's First Life
The Vehicular Female
The Crone
Notes
Bibliography
Index