The Ovidian Heroine as Author

Ovid''s Heroides a catalogue of letters by women who have been deserted has too frequently been examined as merely a lament. In a new departure this book portrays the women of the Heroides as a community of authors. Combining close readings of the texts and their mythological backgrounds with critical methods the book argues that the points of similarity between the different letters of the Heroides so often derided by modern critics represent a brilliant exploitation of intratextuality in which the Ovidian heroine self-consciously fashions herself as an alluding author influenced by what she has read within the Heroides. Far from being naive and impotent victims therefore the heroines are remarkably astute if not always successful at adapting textual strategies that they perceive as useful for attaining their own ends. With this new approach Professor Fulkerson shows that the Heroides articulate a fictional poetic mirroring contemporary practices of poetic composition.