Enemies of the State: The Atavistic Mock Epic

Abstract

“Transgressive” as a label applied to literature or other media is a comment on the content’s reception which is very much a function of the atmosphere of the time. It is therefore implausible that contemporary transgressive novels have much in common, as I contend in this chapter, with classical mock epic such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the claim that they belong to a single “genre” is equally dubious. If I were Northrop Frye I would be implying not only a family resemblance but a case of literal propinquity, as if fictional stories centuries apart reflected a deeply embedded but universal human persuasion.