City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 Proust's Medusa: Ovid, Evolution, and Modernist Metamorphosis Gregory John Mercurio Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1053 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] PROUST’S MEDUSA: OVID, EVOLUTION, AND MODERNIST METAMORPHOSIS by GREGORY JOHN MERCURIO A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ii © 2015 GREGORY JOHN MERCURIO All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Joshua Wilner 4/24/2015 Joshua Wilner Date Chair of Examining Committee Mario DiGangi 4/28/2015 Mario DiGangi Date Executive Officer Wayne Koestenbaum Mary Ann Caws Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract PROUST’S MEDUSA: OVID, EVOLUTION AND MODERNIST METAMORPHOSIS by Gregory John Mercurio Advisor: Joshua Wilner Ovid’s Metamorphoses has served as an indispensible text for Modernism, not least for such foundational Modernists as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis. This dissertation examines how these writers characteristically employ Ovidian metamorphoses with a specifically evolutionary inflection, particularly in a post- Darwinian world informed by varying –often authoritarian– notions of biological adaptation, as well as an increasing emphasis on Mendalian genetics as the determining factor in what would become known as the Modern Synthesis in evolutionary theory.