Jaxson Massott - Digital Project

Part of Group:

In this project, as I'm looking at the trends in gender and sexuality, one important aspect that I found was the influence of the culture of that time period on how or why women in particular were written or regarded in a certain way. Although the selection of primary texts is small for this project, looking at the vast gaps in time between these pieces of literature serves to emphasize not only the divide between them time wise but also how similar they still are even after a wide gap of time. Likewise, this puts the cultural and historical aspects more into perspective, serving as a visual aid to better picture the time periods these pieces of literature were written in.

Timeline

Chronological table

Displaying 1 - 5 of 5
Date Event Created by Associated Places
circa. 100 to circa. 200

Cupid and Psyche

Psyche et L'Amour

Written in around the 2nd century AD by Apuleius within his Metamorphoses, better known as The Golden Ass to many, Cupid and Psyche had originally appeared in art since 4th century BC. The tale tells of two lovers that only come together because of Cupid's mother, Venus, deciding that Psyche was far too beautiful and, therefore, had to be punished. Cupid accidentally pricks himself instead, falling deep in love with Psyche, who is told by an oracle she must give herself up to a "monster" as part of her destiny. This story is considered one of the greater love stories of Ancient Greece, and is still heavily referenced in modern day popular culture, especially as it is the insperation for tales such as Beauty and the Beast

The added picture is Psyche et L'Amour by Bouguereau

Jaxson Massott
circa. 600 to circa. 700

Táin Bó Cúailnge

The Táin has a long, unrecorded oral history, but some of the tales began to be written down around the 7th century. Although the overall epic is mainly about a war between the king of Ulster and Queen Medb of Connacht over thebull Don Cuailnge, the hero of the story is the demigod Cu Chúlainn. In this specific project, the main focus was on his birth tale, where Deichtine would be magically impregnated by the god Lug and birth Cu Chúlainn. Although there is no romance involved, as what occurs to Deichtine happens in only a few pages, it does show how she becomes a vessel for going from point A to point B within the story, and provides an early example for a sacirifcal mother of the "golden child" of prophecy so frequently seen in literature. 

The picture attached is "Cuchulain Desires Arms of the King", a scene from The Táin.

Jaxson Massott
1 Oct 2001 to 1 Oct 2001

Bitten

Bitten is the first of thirteen books written by Kelley Armstrong, featuring a female werewolf protagonist with an array of male lovers to pick from. In conjunction to the mainstream novels, it provides a very different look at the genre with a different perspective of the female protagonist. 

The image is the original cover of the first novel, while the more popular cover features models for the characters.

Jaxson Massott
5 Oct 2005 to 2 Aug 2008

Twilight Saga

Bringing the paranormal genre on the map, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga was an incredible hit with an equally incredibly wide audience. While the main series is four books that were released over three years, it spawned several spinoff books and other series inspired by the concept of vampire-human romance. 

Picture attached shows the four main books of the series, as well as two spinoff books released by the author released in 2010 and 2020.

Jaxson Massott
13 Oct 2009 to 13 Oct 2009

Hush, Hush

Written by Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush is the first of its series featuring Patch, a fallen angel, and Nora, the normal highschool girl. Riding on the tails of Twilight's success, Hush, Hush marks a second big rise in paranormal romance. The rise of angels fiction literature is marked by several different cultural reasons, mainly revolving around real life events.

The picture is the first book of the series, and the only version of the first book's cover. 

Jaxson Massott