Ovid in the #MeToo Era

Abstract

Abstract:This article surveys the discussion around teaching and reading Ovid's upsetting stories of sexual violence, especially in the context of the #MeToo era, and suggests that such stories offer modern readers the opportunity to investigate the power dynamics that allow such acts to happen at all. The case study for this approach is the myth of Philomela, Tereus, and Procne in Metamorphoses 6, and by applying a narratological lens to the passage, we can see how characters like Philomela are empowered through speech and communication, while aggressors like Tereus, deprived of direct speech, are stripped of agency by the narrator.