Transformations of Scylla and Charybdis: Encounters with Otherness and Ancient Greek Myth in Post-Classical Perspective
Transformations of Scylla and Charybdis: Encounters with Otherness and Ancient Greek Myth in Post-Classical Perspective Marco Benoît Carbone University College London Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Gender, Society and Cultural Studies – Documentary-Film Track 1 2 I, Marco Benoît Carbone, , confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the research thesis. I confirm that ethnographic research has been conducted according to approved ethical standards, and that any use of copyrighted material is only intended for non-commercial, non-distribution, education purposes. This PhD research includes an attached Documentary Film. 3 4 ABSTRACT This is a study of contemporary uses of the myth of Scylla and Charybdis, often personified as female monstrosities or explained as a rock and whirlpool in Italy’s Strait of Reggio and Messina. Focusing on theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary issues of historical transmission, it addresses media appropriations of these signifiers of Greco-Roman traditions, as well as abject femininity, animality, and Otherness. Nineteenth-century European travellers visited the Strait in search of the landmarks of Homer’s Odyssey. The area attracted the travellers’ antiquarian appreciation of the myth-place and its relation with legends of marine dangers, a narrative that later reached broader audiences through twentieth-century international tourism and media. In parallel, Scylla and Charybdis were popularized as monstrous figures in the imaginaries of travel, horror, fantasy, and erotica. Drawing on deconstructive approaches to myth studies, the thesis analyses the Scylla and Charybdis motif in the broader context of ideas about antiquity in historiographical, psychoanalytic, and positivist perspectives.
[Show full text]