CATCHING THE COLLAPSE OF TIME. READING ORNYTUS IN STATIUS' THEBAID 12 THROUGH MALONE IN SAMUEL BECKETT'S THE UNNAMABLE

This article aims to propose an alternative strategy of reading Latin literature, which is based on theories recently developed by Donna Haraway and Karen Barad. Haraway and Barad suggest a research practice in which texts are caused to interact beyond any obvious genealogy, studying them not only together but also one through another. The reading technique which they propose may be considered as a more 'aggressive form' of the intertextual approach used already throughout the study of Latin literature. Apart from a theoretical reflection, this article also wants to offer a first and preliminary attempt to illustrate the potential and value of the reading strategy. It works out a brief case study in which the Argive soldier Ornytus, who is introduced in Statius' Thebaid 12, is 'read through' a character named Malone in Samuel Beckett's novel The Unnamable.