Dialogues between Readers and Writers in Lucian's Verae Historiae

Abstract

Verae Historiae both fits into and breaks away from the literary tradition of its age. Our aim in this paper is to analyse the dialogic trend in Lucian’s work or, in other words, to identify the marks that dialogue leaves along the narrative: on the one hand, the subversive nature of the intertextual dialogue that the author holds with the literary tradition; on the other hand, the implicit dialogue with the reader. These two types of dialogue sometimes merge in an intricate pattern of dialogic relationships, with mutual implications that define the polysemic and complex ambiguity of the literary work.

Marília P. Futre Pinheiro is Professor of Classics at the University of Lisbon. Her interests focus on Ancient Narrative, Comparative Literature and Mythology. In her Ph.D. dissertation (Estruturas Técnico Narrativas nas Etiópicas de Heliodoro, Lisboa 1987) she conducted a narratological analysis of Heliodorus’s novel. Her published works cover mainly the Ancient Novel and its reception, and more recently Greek mythology (Mitos e Lendas. Grécia Antiga, Lisboa, Livros e Livros, 2007). She is the editor of ‘Labirintos de Eros’, the first Portuguese translations of the Greek Novels (1996- ). She was the chair of the Organizing Committee of ICAN IV (International Conference on the Ancient Novel), which was held in Lisbon, at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, from 21 to 26 July 2008. She is currently working on the second volume of Mitos e Lendas. Grécia Antiga.