Continuity and Change in the "Isis Book" of Apuleius (Met. XI): A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Religious Ending of the Metamorphoses.
Final Report Abstract
The "Groningen Commentaries on Apuleius" (1977-2007) have set unsurpassed standards in their detailed and comprehensive discussions of Apuleian language and style and narrative technique. Offering useful introductions and full bibliographical references, and elucidating the text through a running commentary, which deals with various issues ranging from textual problems to intertextual allusions and explains the text in its cultural-historical context, the GCA volumes have become an indispensable tool for any Apuleian scholar. Thanks to the DFG-project, this renowned series has now been completed with a commentary on the eleventh and last book of the Metamorphoses. After more than three decades since the publication of GWYN GRIFFITHS’ 1975 commentary, which disappointed in the philological field and represents an outdated, positivistic approach to the literary evidence on Isis, this project has successfully applied the recent innovative approach to the interaction of literature and religion (Literarisierung von Religion) and the important developments in the research on the Second Sophistic (e.g. ‘Self-fashioning’; Cultural Identity) to a new and thorough assessment of Apuleius’ Isis Book, elucidating and interpreting the narrative in its literary, religious, archaeological and cultural context. Combining the expertise of international specialists on Apuleius, Religionsgeschichte, and Early Christian Literature in a team that has worked across the boundaries of established scholarly disciplines, the project has resulted in a new, detailed interpretation of the Latin text of the Isis Book in the easy-to-use form of a fully-fledged commentary with monographic Introduction and three interpretive Essays. Using a transdisciplinary approach for a clear new line of interpretation, the commentary has set a new trend for Apuleian studies. Both the essayistic Introduction and the three interpretive Essays mark a clear departure from the standards of the previous Groningen Commentaries on Apuleius Volumes. This departure is reflected in the intensified focus on interpretive perspectives in the General Introduction as well as the introductions to the single commentary chapters. Instead of Appendices, which used to focus on single problematic passages or topics, this volume offers three interpretive Essays, characterised by the innovative combination of methods and perspectives from archaeology, art and religion on the one hand and literary and philosophical criticism on the other.
Publications
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Aspects of Apuleius‘ Golden Ass, The Isis Book: A Collection of Original Papers, Leiden (u.a.), Brill 2012
W.H. Keulen, U. Egelhaaf-Gaiser (Hrsgg.)
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Apuleius Madaurensis, Metamorphoses, Book XI. The Isis Book. Text, Introduction and Commentary. Essays by F. Drews, W.S. Smith, U. Egelhaaf-Gaiser, Leiden (u.a.), Brill 2015
W.H. Keulen, S. Tilg, L. Nicolini, L. Graverini, S.J. Harrison, S. Panayotakis, D. van Mal-Maeder
