Ovidian Female-Voiced Complaint Poetry

My thesis will explore how women write themselves into the emerging and resurgent tradition of female-voiced complaint poetry. Furthermore, how do women address their sex being 'continuous' with that of the speaker/ writer? Is this a problem to be overcome or is it this that invites such female participation in the first place? The thesis also tracks the historical twistings and turnings of the female-voiced complaint tradition. This tradition is inextricably linked to the reception of Ovid’s Heroides, the locus-classicus for female-voiced complaint. My thesis is presented as five chapters constituting different case studies, advancing chronologically, which chart the high points of the genre in this period.

My project is funded by the Perdita Scholarship in connection with the Perdita Project.

Main Supervisor:

Elizabeth Clarke

e dot r dot clarke at warwick dot ac dot uk

Co-supervisor:

Paul Botley

paul dot botley at warwick dot ac dot uk