‘Some Myths Need to be Ripped Apart’ (Iizuka): The Violence of Reception and Reception of Violence in Naomi Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories: An Adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Abstract

Naomi Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories (1997) combines a stage adaptation of selected tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with the stories of homeless young people. Iizuka’s use of these two sources in her play provides a new insight into Ovid’s treatment of the theme of sexual violence in the Metamorphoses as well as exposing the dangers faced by young people on city streets today. In particular, looking at the two texts exposes the link between sexual violence and linguistic violence in the silencing of victims and the refusal of victims to be silenced. Alongside exploring Iizuka’s reception of the sexual violence portrayed in the Metamorphoses, this article uses a feminist reception theory to analyse Iizuka’s own literary act of violence in her reception of Ovid. Does Iizuka simply present Ovid’s tales and their concern with sexual violence in a more modern setting, or does she violently dismember Ovid’s text to produce a play that criticizes his portrayal of victims of sexual violence in the Metamorphoses? In some ways the techniques Iizuka uses to give the characters in her play a strong voice against the violence they face are similar to those that can be identified in Ovid. However, Iizuka can be seen to use those techniques against the author she emulates in order to give a voice to characters he had silenced.