This paper will explore myths, metaphors, and metamorphoses of the Medusa from antiquity to the present day and present the Gorgon as concept and powerful image of fascination in literature and culture.
Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo responds to a European tradition of political narrative derived ultimately from the Roman poet Lucan, which he signals by using Roman analogies rooted specifically in Lucan’s account of the fall of the Roman Republic to Julius Caesar.
From the outset Pope's "Rape of the Lock" has a rich history of illustration. Starting with the engraved frontispiece, this paper traces its iconography back to ancient Greece and forward to modern cinema.
Toni Morrison’s Shadrack illustrates prophecy as both historically heralded and culturally misunderstood. The “silenced [mad] prophet,” a modern literary trope, has Classical, British, and African archetypes. Tracing these roots reveals messengers of the uncanny as labeled, ostracized, and ultimately needed.