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Part of
The Reality of Women in the Universe of the Ancient Novel
Edited by María Paz López Martínez, Carlos Sánchez-Moreno Ellart and Ana Belén Zaera García
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 40] 2023
► pp. 244–259

Chapter 16
Kidnapping in the ancient novels

 | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Kidnapping is an essential component of Ancient novel narrative because it is a major force behind the development of the plot. Additionally, kidnapping enables the author to experiment with travelling as a literary mechanism to signify transition (kidnapping initiates travelling which allows for convenient transition points, and supplies closures and openings to narrative units), but also to employ travelling as an allegory for soul-/identitysearching, as a means to trace characterization and as a rite of passage onto maturity.
Keywords: kidnapping, peripeteia, identity, travelling, transition, rite of passage
Article outline
  • Preamble: Chaereas and Callirhoe
  • Kidnapping and Peripeteia
  • Kidnapping and identity formation
  • Kidnapping and rites of passage
  • Coda: Longus’ kidnapping-free novel
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.40.16pap
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