Ovid's Reception in Early American Poetry

In the BA seminar Ovid’s Reception in Early American Poetry, we will retrace several chapters of Ovid’s reception history, focusing on US-American poetry up to the mid-19th century. Most prominently, we will be studying Ovid’s Metamorphoses and adaptations of its various myths. 


While previous knowledge of Latin is not required, seminar participants should be ready to perform close-readings at great length. Detailed linguistic and formal analysis of English translations of Ovid’s text (as well as major parodies and extensions) will form the basis of our seminar discussions. 


Please be prepared for the fact that the most substantial part of the reading in this seminar takes place in the very beginning. More precisely: all participants are kindly asked to print out the bilingual Metamorphoses edition (see OVID on Moodle —>

folder “Reading Material” —> “Reading_before_Session2”) and read the English translation in full before the end of the first week of term. 


Participants are also kindly asked to purchase the following anthology before the first session; all other materials will be made available on Moodle.


Shields, David S., ed. American Poetry: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Library of America 178. New York: Library of America, 2007. Print. 

[new: ca. EUR 33.00, used: as of EUR 13.00]