Marie Darrieussecq

This chapter is the first to examine translations of Ovid written by contemporary women writers. Marie Darrieussecq is most famous for her novels, the first of which—Truismes—is often referred to as being an Ovidian fable for our times. She was inspired to tell the story of Ovid’s exile through her translation of his exile poems, as she felt that his plight foreshadowed the catastrophes facing so many, especially in light of the financial crisis, when it was all too common to lose all that you had from one day to the next. This chapter analyses her translation, and examines its connections to the themes of her novels—highlighting her extensive references to Ovid within her novels as well as in this translation.