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The Human Tragicomedy: the Reception of Apuleiusâ Golden Ass in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century
Series: - Metaforms, Volume: 26
Volume Editor:
Does the story of Lucius, a curious and lustful young man who is magically transformed into an ass, have anything to teach us today? Does it have a serious, philosophical and religious meaning, or is it just a form of literary play, full of adventures, magic, sex, violence, and religion? This volume studies the reception of the novel in the last hundred years, showing also the most promising and diverse research perspectives for the future. Apuleius claimed that a philosopher must possess a mirror; perhaps, his novel is a mirror for us to look into.
Mateusz StróżyÅski is Associate Professor in the Institute of Classical Philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in PoznaÅ, Poland. He is the co-editor, with J.FieÄko, of Adam Mickiewicz, Metaphysical Poems (Brill, 2023) and the author of Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World: Faces of Being and Mirrors of Intellect (Cambridge University Press, 2024). He is also founding editor of the online journal Antigone.
Contributors are Nicholas Banner, Jakub Handszu, Douglas Hedley, Warren S. Smith, Mateusz StróżyÅski, Åukasz Berger, Andrea Musio.
Contributors are Nicholas Banner, Jakub Handszu, Douglas Hedley, Warren S. Smith, Mateusz StróżyÅski, Åukasz Berger, Andrea Musio.
"These points, however, do not detract significantly from the overall achievement of the book, which succeeds in opening a coherent and stimulating field of inquiry and in providing a solid foundation for future research on the modern afterlives of Apuleiusâ Golden Ass. The Human Tragicomedy does not merely document the modern and contemporary reception of the Metamorphoses but also offers a comprehensive interpretation: Apuleius continues to speak to us as the author of a work in which laughter and the sacred, the comic and the tragic, are inextricably intertwined, offering an image of the human condition that the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have recognized as their own."
Donato Fasolini in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2026.01.07
Donato Fasolini in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2026.01.07
Contents
Introduction: Luciusâ Wandering into the New Millennium
âMateusz StróżyÅski
1 The Ineffable and the Arcane in Apuleiusâ Metamorphoses
âNicholas Banner
2 Apuleiusâ Metamorphoses: a Jungian Perspective
âJakub Handszu
3 Shame and Glory: C.S. Lewis and the Tale of Cupid and Psyche
âDouglas Hedley
4 Humour and Satire in Book Eleven of The Golden Ass
âWarren S. Smith
5 The Divine Joke: C.S. Lewis and The Golden Ass
âMateusz StróżyÅski
6 Luciusâ Games of Politeness
âÅukasz Berger
7 The Reception of Apuleius in Italian Theatre and Cinema
âAndrea Musio
8 Au hasard, Apuleius? The Uses of The Golden Ass in the Twenty-First Century Novel and Cinema
âMateusz StróżyÅski
Conclusion: Quiring to the Young-Eyed Cherubins
âMateusz StróżyÅski
Index
Introduction: Luciusâ Wandering into the New Millennium
âMateusz StróżyÅski
Part 1: The Sun at Midnight
1 The Ineffable and the Arcane in Apuleiusâ Metamorphoses
âNicholas Banner
2 Apuleiusâ Metamorphoses: a Jungian Perspective
âJakub Handszu
3 Shame and Glory: C.S. Lewis and the Tale of Cupid and Psyche
âDouglas Hedley
Part 2: Divine Comedy
4 Humour and Satire in Book Eleven of The Golden Ass
âWarren S. Smith
5 The Divine Joke: C.S. Lewis and The Golden Ass
âMateusz StróżyÅski
Part 3: Weaving Together Different Tales
6 Luciusâ Games of Politeness
âÅukasz Berger
7 The Reception of Apuleius in Italian Theatre and Cinema
âAndrea Musio
8 Au hasard, Apuleius? The Uses of The Golden Ass in the Twenty-First Century Novel and Cinema
âMateusz StróżyÅski
Conclusion: Quiring to the Young-Eyed Cherubins
âMateusz StróżyÅski
Index
The book will be interesting for Classicists working on ancient novel and its reception, for those working on ancient religion, and for the historians of ideas, particularly, those interested in the Platonic tradition.