Meta/morphosis

Abstract

Meta/morphosis is a long-form poetry that acts as the rationale behind wider doctoral research as a practitioner-researcher, which uses performance research as a well-being intervention for young people with socio-emotional mental health conditions through the vehicle of mythology. The rationale behind my research – which explores the navigation of human emotion and aims to create pathways to new becomings () – creative writing felt like the only apt medium. The poem meanders around the original form of Ovid’s Metamorphoses – inspired by the way in which the intertwining internal monologues and visceral feelings of the characters were never too much and, in fact, spurred on. The justification for and exploration of this mode of writing takes the form of a commentary, as is commonplace for ancient texts in Latin and Greek to be presented with an accompanying linguistic commentary. The ‘commentary’ is cut together side by side to the poem as a praxis to emphasize the materiality of how the two ideas can touch and influence/change their form (; ; ; ; ). The poem was performed in 2022 – the exploration of this practice allowed me to fully immerse myself in the epistemology and methodology of what I am hoping to do; it gave grounding to now move forward and begin research with the epistemology, methodology, practice, theory and ethics intertwined.