'Staêgh veranderende en wisselbaere dingen'. Metamorfose in de treurspelen van Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679)

Abstract

Encouraged to do so by the remarkably high age at which Dutch poet and playwright Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) worked on a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, this thesis explores the role of metamorphosis, and more specifically Ovid's Metamorphoses, in Vondel's tragedies. Although the relationship between Ovid's Metamorphoses and the work of other major early modern authors such as Shakespeare and Milton has been discussed extensively, this has never been done for Vondel. In this thesis, an exemplary corpus of ten of his plays is subjected to a thematic close reading, based on insights from literary studies, literary and cultural history of the classical and early modern period and gender studies. In three thematically structured chapters, different facets of the metamorphosis theme are examined in connection to Vondel's plays. It is shown that the Metamorphoses do not only form an essential structural layer that pervades the corpus of Vondel's tragedies, but also invest new meanings on a textual level in individual plays.