“Living in a place called exile” : the universals of the alienation caused by isolation
Date
2003-08-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS Publishing
Abstract
Although various aspects of Ovid’s emotional reactions to exile have been
researched, there has so far been no extended practical study that places
the emotional content of his works into a new political context. In this
respect Ovid’s voicing of his experiences can serve to illuminate the
experiences of latter-day exiles. This article attempts to establish, by
literary means, a picture of the alienation attendant upon exile and its
sublimation. For this purpose the poetry of Ovid, as well as that of certain
modern authors, is used as illustration. There are many parallels between
the Rome of the turn of our era and the South Africa of previous decades:
exile was a political weapon in both. Themes reflecting alienation in Ovid’s
poems are universal, and still valid in situations of exile today. Ovid’s
portrayal of his own exiled persona is used to draw a psychological profile
of the experiences of alienation during such exile. This profile may be
termed the “universals of alienation”, which is applied to the exile or
imprisonment of the victims of contemporary political upheaval. The extent to which the verbalisation of such alienation serves to heal such a wounded
soul is explored.
Description
Please cite as follows:
Claassen, J. 2003. 'Living in a place called exile': The universals of the alienation caused by isolation. Literator, 24(3):85-112, doi:10.4102/lit.v24i3.302.
The original publication is available at http://literator.org.za
Claassen, J. 2003. 'Living in a place called exile': The universals of the alienation caused by isolation. Literator, 24(3):85-112, doi:10.4102/lit.v24i3.302.
The original publication is available at http://literator.org.za
Keywords
Alienation, Exiles in literature, Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.
Citation
Claassen, J. 2003. 'Living in a place called exile': The universals of the alienation caused by isolation. Literator, 24(3):85-112, doi:10.4102/lit.v24i3.302.