Witches in the Roman Novels: Alternative Authority and Community as Resist

This talk examines how witches and wise women in our surviving Roman novels, Petronius' Satyrica (1st cent. CE) and Apuleius' Metamorphoses (2nd cent. CE) are depicted as alternatives to mainstream religious, healing, and judicial authorities and how these presentations of female-coded authority are received by their communities. In contrast with previous studies that tend to examine these women from the outside as a stereotyped, literary Other or an object of historical study, Evelyn Adkins, Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Classics, approaches the witches of the Roman novels on their own terms, as culturally specific representations of women attempting to assert authority, expertise, and power, and build mutually supportive, female-centered communities within the restrictive frameworks of their patriarchal societies.
An informal lunch will be provided.
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