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<p>This article takes as its focus the late Latin poems of Maximianus (sixth-century AD) and investigates how we can compare its representation of ageing as a bodily transformation to the metamorphosis of Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg’s film <i>The Fly</i> (1986). Such a comparative analysis is made possible on the one hand through the use of the framework of <i>allelopoiesis</i>, which has been developed in order to study cultural (ex)change over the course of history, particularly related to the Graeco-Roman culture. On the other hand, concepts which find their origin in the field of ageing studies and gerontology – specifically the notion of deep old age or fourth age, the post-human and abjection – contribute to a detailed analysis of the portrayal of old age in Maximianus’ narrative and Cronenberg’s visual exploration of the transition from human to animal. The combination of both methodological frames therefore makes it possible that this text and movie can be brought into contact with one another for the first time, resulting in a discussion on their shared qualities regarding the process of transformation in relation to old age, and thus highlighting how both works invite readers and viewers to contemplate universal questions of ageing and what it means to be human.</p>

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‘Non sum qui fueram’: An Analysis of Old Age as Post-human Transformation in Maximianus’ Elegia Prima (Sixth-Century AD) and David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986)

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年5月21日

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  • Nina Van der Sype

摘要

This article takes as its focus the late Latin poems of Maximianus (sixth-century AD) and investigates how we can compare its representation of ageing as a bodily transformation to the metamorphosis of Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg’s film The Fly (1986). Such a comparative analysis is made possible on the one hand through the use of the framework of allelopoiesis, which has been developed in order to study cultural (ex)change over the course of history, particularly related to the Graeco-Roman culture. On the other hand, concepts which find their origin in the field of ageing studies and gerontology – specifically the notion of deep old age or fourth age, the post-human and abjection – contribute to a detailed analysis of the portrayal of old age in Maximianus’ narrative and Cronenberg’s visual exploration of the transition from human to animal. The combination of both methodological frames therefore makes it possible that this text and movie can be brought into contact with one another for the first time, resulting in a discussion on their shared qualities regarding the process of transformation in relation to old age, and thus highlighting how both works invite readers and viewers to contemplate universal questions of ageing and what it means to be human.