Contrast as narrative technique in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Booknews

Analyzes the change-of-era Roman poet's work by looking at contrast, here considered as the pointed, sharply defined intensification of the element of otherness--for example adopting a tone that is dissonant with the subject matter in order to distance the subject and style--rather than some of the milder forms of variatio--such as a shift in tone in order to keep the narrative interesting. Engages selections from Ovid's Theban sections and heroes and heroines and his parody of Vergil's Orpheus. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.