Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

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James Gollnick Unreviewed (LLM_ASSISTED)

James Gollnick provides a theoretical framework for dream-narrative hermeneutics through his study of Apuleius's Metamorphoses. His work on the religious and initiatory dimensions of dream narratives offers an interpretive lens applicable to the HP's own dream structure.

Works in Archive

Religious Dreamworld of Apuleius' Metamorphoses: Recovering a Forgotten Hermeneutic

(?) [book] Dream & Religion

Gollnick proposes dreaming as a hermeneutical genre for interpreting Apuleius's Metamorphoses, arguing that the novel's contradictions and bizarre episodes become coherent when understood through dream logic rather than waking consciousness. Drawing on both Freudian and Jungian frameworks alongside second-century dream interpretation practices, he treats the embedded Eros and Psyche myth as a pivotal archetypal dream prefiguring Lucius's conversion and initiation into the Isis cult. The study recovers the religious dimensions of ancient dream culture, offering a comparative framework directly relevant to dream-narrative scholarship on texts like the HP.

Review Status / Provenance

Draft Source: LLM_ASSISTED