Saviana Stănescu’s Barbarian women: the Empire writes back to Ovid

Ranger, Holly

Abstract

This article discusses the Romanian playwright Saviana Stănescu and her continued engagement with the works of Ovid, tracking the feminist methodology which links her varied work. While Ovid’s self-definition against the ‘barbarian others’ he encounters in Tomis is crucial to an understanding of the exile poetry, in a postcolonial world the ideologically loaded nature of the term barbarus must be recognized, and its use and replication in modern translations and receptions interrogated. Characterized by an astute critical awareness and a committed political engagement, Stănescu’s classical receptions draw out the damaging real-world consequences for a people labelled ‘barbarians’. Her work offers a defence of the reviled Black Sea inhabitants of Ovid’s exilic poems by providing a critique of the colonial representations of the ‘barbarians’ therein, and exposing the power mechanisms of ancient and contemporary imperialism alike.

Citation

Ranger, H. (2016). Saviana Stănescu’s Barbarian women: the Empire writes back to Ovid. Classical Receptions Journal, 8(3), 331-356. https://doi.org/10.1093/crj/clv006

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 23, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Aug 3, 2015
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 27, 2018
• Journal: Classical Receptions Journal
• Print ISSN: 1759-5134
• Electronic ISSN: 1759-5142
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 331-356
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/crj/clv006
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1132619
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/crj/article/8/3/331/1745168
• Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Classical Receptions Journal following peer review. The version of record, Holly Ranger; Saviana Stănescu’s Barbarian women: the Empire Writes Back to Ovid, Classical Receptions Journal, Volume 8, Issue 3, 1 July 2016, Pages 331–356, https://doi.org/10.1093/crj/clv006 is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/crj/article/8/3/331/1745168.
• Contract Date: Sep 26, 2018