Identity In Ovid's Metamorphosis

The inevitability of change is also depicted in “the line-etched story of life in scars and wrinkles” through the use of imagery. The word choice of “line etched” further enhances the image of wrinkles and aging. As time goes by, individuals lose the innocence they had as a child. The juxtaposition in “where I was once the curious onlooker, I now write my own semaphore secrets in colourful t-shirts and mismatched socks”, expresses the difference between youthful innocence and the experience and responsibility of adulthood. Therefore, the unavoidable nature of change is explored in this text.

Many people have sometimes found themselves in some really terrifying situations, only to wake up shortly after and realize that they were dreaming. In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the main character Gregor Samsa is a traveling salesman who had devoted his life to taking care of his mother, father, and sister. That is, however, until he woke up one morning and found himself transformed into an insect. At that point, he became useless to his family and had to come to terms with his new identity as a bug. This, of course, was a totally different life to have then the one he previously held. Identity is an issue that most people encounter at some time or another, so the “metamorphosis” is somewhat a day-to-day occurrence for these individuals.

The most obvious metamorphosis is that of Gregor. Throughout his entire life, Gregor has let other people make his decisions for him. The physical metamorphosis that he undergoes is the first occurrence in his life that no one in his family has told him what to do. This change allows Gregor to find his inner self and disconnect himself from the orders and hardships brought out by his family. By means of his transformation into a giant insect, Gregor has been released from his responsibility to support his family without having to assume the guilt of letting them down. He has also changed from the provider to the dependent. Richter brings up the point that the transformation of Gregor was not necessarily a bad one.

The realization of difference often marks a significant moment of turning in childhood, moving from a blissful but naïve ignorance to a newfound sense of reality’s burden. Countee Cullen and Cecilia Woloch chronicle the moment when a child grasps a sense of difference from other children and the surrounding world. Hinged by their elegiac tones, the contemporary poets explore how wounding words cause loss. Cullen’s “Incident” and Woloch’s “Blink” both implement imagery of size to examine the volta that is the realization of difference. This manifests in Cullen's specific diction, and Woloch’s integration of visceral and religious imagery. Each poem has a volta, a turning point of realization that reveals, in retrospect, the impact of the poem's events on the narrator's life. The contrasting placement of the volta causes the poems themselves to differ in their sense of closure, leaving the reader grasping the remnants of childhood innocence. Cullen's word choice leading to a sudden volta show how a tiny event can leave an imprint on a lifetime, while Woloch's rising volta gives hope in the last line of the poem.

Poetry has long been known to communicate emotions, ideas, and stories in many intriguing and powerful ways. The Metamorphoses, no doubt Ovid’s magnum opus, is no exception to this rule. Written in 8 A.D., Ovid’s epic poem tackles important concepts such as divinity, the definition of gender, and mortal-immortal relationships. Additionally, The Metamorphoses adds intricate detail to the epics of old, and places many mythical histories in an emotional context. The collection of poems begins with the creation of the world, and chronicles time from that point to the deification of Julius Caesar.

For queer theorists, identity has been constructed through performativity, which is based on the opinion of Judith Butler. Butler (1990, p.25) believed that “ there is no gender identity behind the expression of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results.” In other words, there is not any factor to produce the identity, but identity creates itself through performativity. One should imitate and repeat the gender expression again and again according to norms, then the identity will be constituted, which also shows that identity is fluid and constructed. Moreover, Jenkins (2000,2004) stated that a dynamic social process generates identity, so identity is not static but fluid and dynamic.

Judith Butler’s essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” calls for a new way to view sex and gender. Butler argues that “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo”. In this case, gender is not constituted by what one is, but rather what one does; the performative acts constitute gender. In other words, gender is not the starting place; it is an identity repeatedly constructed throughout time. Butler is trying to show us a feminist perspective of sex and gender. She attempts to follow Beauvoir’s path in a fight against society norms.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a novella that begins with an absurd concept. A man wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. While this concept for a story is certainly absurd, Kafka contrasts this plot with a rather dull, plain narrative. It may initially seem novel to explain a ridiculous situation in a simple manner, but this causes the novella to be quite boring.

In one word, the author Ovid describes the overall content and theme of his poem with the word “Metamorphoses” in the title. Some relative synonyms of this word among others are; altar, change, mutate, develop, and reshape (metamorphose). But Ovid goes further to describe the theme within the first two lines of the poem.

In Judith Butler’s “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution” she examines what fulfilling the role of gender and sex means through phenomenology. The Act Theory, a theory Butler outlines at the beginning of her essay, outlines an idea that seeks to represent what it is to do prior to an assumption of what you ought to do. Butler elaborates and shows the reader how phenomenology is simply an attempt to return to look at the body and subjective experiences – this idea is crucial to feminist theory. In Butler’s essay she addresses the issue of how gender is defined and adapted as a society, and the effects to how our own society interprets gender. In this paper I will be outlining Butler’s idea of phenomenology in regards to gender, while also

Gender subjectivity is another important aspect of the debate around gender because it focuses on a move away from the idea of innate sexual identity characteristics that divide human beings into male and female (Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014). This type of view challenges the essentialism of sexual difference into something more then a binary between male vs. female, heterosexual vs. homosexual, etc., as it recognizes that these dichotomies are problematic because the term of gender encompasses a whole range of identities across a spectrum. In particular ideas like what does it mean to be equal? (Butler) and seeing division of gender into binary conceptions of identity can be seen as a process of ‘othering’ (de Beauvoir) are some of the areas that this topic examines.

Judith Butler questions the belief that behaviors of either sex are natural. She proposes a rather radical theory that gender is performative and that sex is constructed. When gender is being performed, it means that someone would take on a role, acting in such a way that gives society the idea of their gender and constructs part of their identity. To be performative means that we produce a series of effects.Gender is constructed and is not in any way connected ‘naturally’ to sex.

Gender is defined in Undoing Gender in an act of improvising within a scene of constraint, where one that is always within a social context, and never outside of the ideology. Butler expresses that Undoing Gender expresses an understanding of how “restrictively normative conceptions of sexual and gendered life” might be undone. She stresses throughout the reading that this process of undoing is not something that is negative or

“Performative utterances do not describe but perform the action they designate” (Culler 96), and the repetitive assertions from the white man placed upon the black man results in him being inferior. The white man’s performativity about Butler’s idea of gender trouble, that gender, sexuality and biological makeup are not correlated. It also refers to oppressions of genders that do not fit the norm of society. For Butler gender acts “as a strategy for survival within compulsory systems, gender is performative with

Transformations from one shape or form into another are the central theme in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The popularity and timelessness of this work stems from the manner of story telling. Ovid takes stories relevant to his culture and time period, and weaves them together into one work with a connecting theme of transformation throughout. The thread of humor that runs through Metamorphoses is consistent with the satire and commentary of the work. The theme is presented in the opening lines of Metamorphoses, where the poet invokes the gods, who are responsible for the changes, to look favorably on his efforts to compose. The changes are of many kinds: from human to animal, animal to human, thing to