| The main goal of this study is to demonstrate that the storytelling style of Apuleius' Golden Ass should be understood neither as a sign of the author's carelessness nor as an expression of his desire to motivate the reader to undertake a hopeless quest for meaning, as has been suggested in previous research, but, much rather, as a means of comic characterization of the novel's primary narrator Lucius. I argue that Lucius as the narrator of his own story, in marked contrast to all other storytellers in the novel, is portrayed as an inept storyteller who, no matter how hard he tries, is incapable of concealing the fact that he is making everything up. As a result, the narrative of the Golden Ass as a whole can be perceived as a veritable comedy of storytelling, in which Lucius plays the main comic role in two capacities - both as protagonist and as narrator.; I begin by demonstrating that Ps.-Lucian's Lou&d12;ki ov ,h &d13; ,o&d12; nov , universally regarded as the epitome of Apuleius' Greek original, is thoroughly based on the mimetic principles of narrative plotting, from which Apuleius noticeably deviates in his own narrative. Then I turn to the multiple narratives of Apuleius' Golden Ass in order to show that it is primarily by contrast with some of the inserted tales that one can clearly recognize that the narratological deviance of the primary narrative is a self-consciously implemented strategy and that the incongruously moralistic tone of the final book of the novel produces the impression of a burlesque of moralistic interpretations in general. Finally, I discuss some narratological peculiarities of Apuleius' narrators and point to possible antecedents of different facets of the comic figure of Lucius the narrator in the history of classical literature. |
