Episode 4: Book 4 and Suzuki’s The Metamorphoses of Helen

The main readings for this episode were Books 4 of the Odyssey and Mihoko Suzuki’s 1989 book The Metamorphoses of Helen: Authority, Difference and the Epic.

Next time, September 1, we will read Book 5 of the Odyssey and Jonathan Shay’s 2002 book Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Clayton, Barbara. A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer’s Odyssey. Lexington Books, New York, 1992.

de Jong, Irene. A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2001.

Derrida, Jacques. “Plato’s Pharmacy” in Dissemination. By Jacques Derrida, translated by Barbara Johnson, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Kajillionaire. Directed by Miranda July, performances by Evan Rachel Wood and Debra Winger, Plan B Entertainment, 2020.

Hartocollis, Anemona. “New College of Florida Was Progressive. Then Gov. DeSantis Overhauled It”. New York Times, December 28, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/us/new-college-ron-desantis-florida-conservative.html?smid=url-share

West, Stephanie. “Commentary on Book 4” in A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey: Volume I: Introduction and Books I-VIII. Edited by Alfred Heubeck, Stephanie West and J.B. Hainsworth. Oxford University Press, Oxford: 1998.

Ancient poetry mention:

• Theocritus, Idyll 18