Classical Reception Studies: Key Texts and Ideas

Classical Reception Studies: Key Texts and Ideas Antiquity never really ended. Ancient texts, images, and ideas have continued traveling widely - from Baghdad to Toledo, from Rome to Tokyo - and they are still with us today in our daily lives, not just in literature and art but also in politics and propaganda. How can we study and understand the continued presence of ancient Greece and Rome? One of the still dominant approaches, which has emerged since the 1990s, is 'classical reception studies'. While this label might suggest a homogenous field of study, the field's methods and theoretical positions are quite diverse. This seminar works towards a better understanding of the different theoretical orientations in classical reception scholarship. We will discuss a selection of key texts of classical reception studies by, among others, Charles Martindale, Simon Goldhill, and Edith Hall. How do they conceptualize 'reception'? What is understood by 'the classical'? What traditions of research and thought do they respond to? And how do different approaches to reception relate to ideas about classical 'influence', 'tradition', and 'legacy'? The course is open to graduate students from various humanities disciplines interested in the many ways in which ancient texts, images, and ideas have been transmitted, interpreted, and reused in later periods. All texts will be made available.