A Elegia Epistolar como recurso discursivo na obra Heroides, de Ovídio

Abstract

Ovid, a writer of the Roman imperial period, is the author of “Heroides” (20-16 B.C.), which contains various epistles written by mythological characters. The work employs the elegiac meter (dactylic hexameter and pentameter) along with the Epistolary genre structure. In contrast to traditional Roman elegiac poetry with a male first-person perspective, Ovid, in “Heroides,” gives voice to female characters who predominantly sign the epistles. This study aims to analyze the combination of the two literary genres, Elegy and Epistle, as discursive devices used by heroines in “Heroides.” Reflecting on Ovid’s narrative construction, we seek to understand the writing mechanism chosen by the poet to amplify the feminine voice, exploring narrative elements that reveal the voices in the work – author, heroines, reader – drawing on concepts by Barthes (2004), Foucault (2006), Jauss (1969), and Vasconcellos (2016). After establishing the roles of the author, heroines, and reader, we qualify Elegy and Epistle as spaces of feminine manifestation in “Heroides,” as it is through the structure of these genres that we perceive the voices of the heroines. The combination of genres allows the characters to present their stories filled with desire, love, and abandonment. Lastly, we observe that some behaviors adopted by the heroines are linked to the relationships between the female and male genders, exploring the feminine in social, historical, and cultural contexts to identify possible connections between the mythological world and the imperial society through Gender Studies, following Scott (2019).