Vered Lev Kenaan, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, University of Haifa

Vered Lev Kenaan is Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa. As an interpreter of culture and myths, her writing centres on the relationships between psychoanalysis and literature, intertextuality and the interpretation of dreams, textuality and gender: her book, Pandora's Senses: The Feminine Character of the Ancient Text (Wisconsin, 2008) interprets the myth of the first woman and shows how femininity is embedded in canonical texts reflecting male hegemony. Her investigations of Greek and Roman mythology led to the creation of a series of public lectures at the University of Haifa dedicated to the contribution of myth to the humanities, the arts, and the social sciences. She is the chief editor of a book series 'Myth in the Humanities' published by Haifa University Press and Pardes Publishing House, and is also editor of the journal Dappim: Research in Literature.

"Any one of the sections, indeed some of the sub-sections, are rich enough to have been the subject of a stand-alone study ... Wrestling with a multitude of passages from ancient authors, Lev Kenaan's arguments are never lame and at no time is this compelling study dull or repetitive. Quite the contrary. Wearing her not inconsiderable erudition lightly, Lev Kenaan is often eloquent and she has given us a very good book indeed." -- John Gale, British Journal of Psychotherapy

"This book marks an important step for the understanding of psychoanalysis' role in hermeneutics in general and in a critical approach to the Greco-Roman past in particular. It is to be praised not only for its capacious theoretical underpinnings -- apart from Freud, who is extensively quoted and acutely analysed, Lev Kenaan engages with Hegel, Burchkardt, Gadamer, Abraham, Auerbach, Dodds, a fascinating personal pantheon -- but also for the shrewd reading of some foundational sections of Homer and Virgil. As with any book which tries to subvert received wisdom, it will hopefully spark lively discussion and even controversy, which should be taken as testimony to its incisiveness and originality." -- Alessandro Schiesaro, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"...this elegant and sophisticated journey around filiation is an engaging and forceful book that deserves a wide and mixed audience." -- Simon Goldhill, Psychoanalysis and History