Thesis Christ: Sabrina Gansen on metamorphosis inspired by The Golden Ass
What is your thesis about?
It is widely acknowledged among scholars that Apuleius’ The Golden Ass had great influence on later works (considering it is the only ancient Roman novel to survive in its entirety), such as the Spanish picaresque genre, the Italian Decameron, and a good amount of European fairytales.
Scholars have also noted many similarities between The Golden Ass and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. On the surface, the works are both donkey-transformation-centric. Beyond that, the transformed characters are artists in the genre of the work they come from. Bottom’s storyline in A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around a troupe of actors trying very hard to put on the fictional tragedy Pyramus and Thisbe (and failing hilariously), while Lucius in The Golden Ass is a storyteller who is turned into a donkey while searching out magical material for his stories.
Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia does not feature a donkey, but it does follow the antics of two princes, who dress up as a woman and a shepherd, respectively. Like The Golden Ass, Arcadia relies on a very serious buildup of tension, subverted by a release into a happy ending, turning the ordeal into a big laugh. Both works feature a very serious moment where the hero character is put on trial for murder, until it is revealed that they never actually murdered anyone: the victim was alive the whole time in Arcadia, and in The Golden Ass the murder was a practical joke involving enchanted leather bags.
All of these works also play with how art is perceived within the culture of the era. At the time, tragedy was thought to be a much more noble artform than comedy. In The Golden Ass, Lucius drops from his high class life to the bottom of the social ladder when he is transformed. In the same manner, these serious, intellectual works are transformed into something to laugh at when the funny donkey-man appears. The well-established authors humble themselves (make asses of themselves) by writing something frivolous like a comedy (or a romance for women in the case of Arcadia). However, this really demonstrates the expertise of the authors, who prove themselves as literary masters even though they’re writing in “lower genres.”
What got you inspired in this?
Gansen took Sonia Sabnis’ Advanced Latin in her sophomore year, and spent the whole semester on The Golden Ass. “I was immediately obsessed with that book,” she said. “I’m very interested in comedy and genre studies in literary history.” So Gansen was searching for something to connect this book to and found it in the Bard himself.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream has always been my play,” she said. Throughout her childhood, her parents took her to many Shakespeare productions. “Bottom has always been my favorite character… [he’s] a super enthusiastic actor, but also not the brightest.” When she started picking up on all of the connections between the two works, it seemed natural to delve into it.
Gansen’s advisor Simone Waller (Reed’s Shakespeare expert) then suggested she also look into Arcadia as another metagenre work to add to the comparison. Gansen found the connection worthwhile, and dove into that work as well.
What have been the biggest hurdles and helps?
Naturally, “for English theses, it’s a lot of reading.” However, Gansen noted that “it helps that all of the texts are ones that I’m already very familiar with.” Gansen, the madlad, is also doing all of her own Latin translations of The Golden Ass. She said, “Latin has been a big part of my experience at Reed… so I was excited to have that as a part of my thesis.”
When she began her search for secondary resources, Gansen was pleased to find that she was not alone in theorizing connections between the works. She shared, “it’s very cool to see other authors making the same connections, which has helped me feel like I’m not just making all of this up.”
She has also found it helpful to talk with other professors about her work. In her experience “it’s been super helpful talking to professors [like Sonia] who aren’t my advisor” to find more connections and resources.
What do you hope this accomplishes?
Gansen describes how “a lot of other scholars just point out lines that are similar, scenes that are similar, etc. What I want to do is– taking as a given that they are similar– [ask]: how are they similar in style and theme?” She elaborated how, “it’s more interesting to go to the next level and ask, substantively, what’s the connection here.”
Adding Arcadia is a new direction, although not entirely novel Gansen wants to go “beyond just the donkey comparison, thinking about how other Shakespeare contemporaries were considering The Golden Ass.”
What was the wackiest thing you learned about in researching?
The craziest thing Gansen discovered in her research was that the natural pun in the character Bottom’s transformation into an ass in Midsummer is actually a complete linguistic accident. She explained that there is no concrete evidence that the word “bottom” was used to mean “rear end” at the time Shakespeare was writing, and the character is actually called Bottom because that was the term for a part of a weaving device. His job is to weave tales for the audience, not just be the butt of many jokes. Still, it is utterly hilarious that over the centuries this Bottom/ass coincidence appeared. Apart from that, the trope of characters transforming into literal versions of their name goes as far back as Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Any advice for thesising, or soon to be thesising students?
Gansen’s simple advice is to “write about something you’re really passionate about! Don’t just come up with something that you think, ‘Well, I guess I could write a thesis about this.’” She noted she is super happy to be working on something she’s been interested in for a long time. “It can be hard even when you love the material,” so make sure not to make it even harder.
Additionally, one should start drafting early because the semester goes by fast. She reflected, stating “I definitely ran into a panic last semester when the first chapter was due. It’s a lot easier to do a ton of drafting at the beginning than to do all of it right at the end.”
Drafting is also made much easier by taking notes on your research. Gansen says “what’s important is to just be reading and writing at the same time. What Simone has advised me to do, which has been really helpful, is to fully write down my thoughts in paragraphs as I’m reading so that I can have a basis for the writing that’s going to go into my chapters.”
Anything else you’d like to share with the Reed student body?
Gansen apologizes for how “I’m constantly talking my friends’ ears off about donkeys. They’re probably tired of it at this point.”