Browsing by Author "Van der Merwe, Chene"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Reading Ovid in the #MeToo era : a feminist reception of rape scenes in the Metamorphoses
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12) Van der Merwe, Chene; De Villiers, Annemarie; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The 21st century seems to a continuation of the incurable plagues which have pained our society for decades: gender-based violence, rape, and the sexual assault of women. The recent uprisings of international and South African movements such as #MeToo and #AmINext resulted in the exposure of sexual predators like Jeffrey Epstein, Larry Nassar, and Harvey Weinstein, and in the South African context Bob Hewitt. These movements also cast light on the immense problem of influential men who abuse their power to rape and sexually assault females – much like the god Apollo in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, who rapes his mortal victims from a position of immortal power. There are roughly fifty scenes in the Metamorphoses where a kind of rape culture is clearly identifiable. The omniscient narrator, however, seems to question the conduct of the perpetrators by casting them in the roles of cruel antagonists, and the female victims as sympathetic characters. Assuming that the rapes and sexual assaults in Ovid’s Metamorphoses are to some extent a reflection of his contemporary society’s attitude towards women, this study argues that Ovid’s unique retelling of myths illustrates that he is indeed a proto-feminist as he challenged the patriarchal standards of his time. Using the framework of second and third wave feminism, as these movements placed their focus on rape and pornography, selected rape scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses are analysed from a feminist point of view to investigate to what extent the speaker may be seen to question the reigning male-dominated view that women are dispensable. The findings of this investigation show that Ovid places a focus on the female victims’ suffering, and gives a “voice” to the victims which, in earlier versions of the myths, these females did not have. Thus, as the #MeToo movement has provided a platform for modern-day rape victims to finally tell their stories, Ovid’s sympathetic approach to the rape victims in the Metamorphoses – including his unprecedented focus on their narratives – allows the veil of silence cast by patriarchy to be lifted.