FROM CLASSICAL MYTH TO CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVE: ARIADNE IN THE J. SAINT’S REWRITING

Abstract

This paper examines the Ariadne’s figure in the classical mythographic tradition and its contemporary rewriting by Jennifer Saint, aiming to investigate the relationship between narrative mutability and the construction of female identity. The research is based on the premise that the plurality of mythic versions does not produce a polyphonic identity, but rather generates a progressive erosion of subjectivity, reducing Ariadne to a shaded narrative figure deprived of symbolic autonomy. The methodology combines a comparative analysis of the main classical sources (Homer, Hesiod, Catullus, Ovid) with a critical reading of the novel Ariadne, focusing on the rewriting strategies and narrative mechanisms that, despite modifying mythical content, preserve the underlying structures. The approach is intertextual and thematic, aiming to trace the representation of Ariadne and assess the ability of contemporary rewritings to reshape cultural memory and redefine identity models. The results highlight how the narrative mutability characterizing Ariadne does not foster a plurality of identities but instead produces a condition of absence, due to the lack of semantic and symbolic continuity. Even contemporary rewritings, though ideologically aware, struggle to disrupt the genealogies of trauma and marginality, confirming the need to imagine alternative narrative models capable of restoring subjectivity to historically marginalized female figures.