Classical Reception Studies Network

The culture of the Classical world continues to shape that of the modern West. Those studying the Fantastika (science fiction, fantasy and horror) know that it has its roots in the literature of the Graeco-Roman world (Homer's Odyssey, Lucian's True History). At the same time, scholars of Classical Reception are increasingly investigating all aspects of popular culture, and have begun looking at science fiction. However, scholars of the one are not often enough in contact with scholars of the other. This conference aims to bridge the divide, and provide a forum in which SF and Classical Reception scholars can meet and exchange ideas.

We invite proposals for papers (20 minutes plus discussion) or themed panels of three or four papers from a wide range of disciplines (including Science Fiction, Classical Reception and Literature), from academics, students, fans, and anyone else interested, on any aspect of the interaction between the Classical world of Greece and Rome and science fiction, fantasy and horror. We are looking for papers on Classical elements in modern (post-1800) examples of the Fantastika, and on science fictional or fantastic elements in Classical literature. We are particularly interested in papers addressing literary science fiction or fantasy, where we feel investigations of the interaction with the ancient world are relatively rare. But we also welcome papers on film, television, radio, comics, games, or fan culture.

Please send proposals to conferences@sf-foundation.org , to arrive by 30 September 2012. Paper proposals should be no more than 300 words. Themed panels should also include an introduction to the panel, of no more than 300 words. Please include the name of the author/panel convener, and contact details.

Swords, Sorcery, Sandals and Space is organised by the Science Fiction Foundation, with the co- operation of the School of Archaeology , Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool.

Receptions of Antiquity, Receptions of Gender? Stereotype and Identity in Classically Informed Art
College Art Association Annual Conference
13-16 February 2013, New York City

Session Chairs: Alison Poe, Fairfield University; and Marice Rose, Fairfield University.
Email: alisonpoe@hotmail.com and mrose@fairfield.edu

While post-classical artists' responses to the ever-broadening classical canon have received much scholarly attention, and while the range of theoretical approaches to these works has expanded, there have been few systematic studies of gender construction within art that seeks to adapt, appropriate, reuse, and/or reinterpret antiquity. This session explores gender stereotypes and identities found in classically informed art from the medieval era through today. Do the later artworks maintain anything authentically ancient? How do gender stereotypes of the different centuries intersect? Do the post-classical works uphold, question, or reject the cultural authority of classical art in their treatment of gender? Classical reception theory posits that meaning occurs at the moment of reception. How is reception of classical visual culture mediated by different viewing contexts in regard to gender issues? How do changing interpretations of ancient art and applications of new approaches affect the making and reading of art that looks back to antiquity?

Deadline: May 4

Please follow the CAA guidelines for formatting abstracts, available on-line at:
http://www.collegeart.org/news/2012/03/28/propose-a-paper-or-presentation-for-the-2013-annual-conference/

2012

CALL FOR PAPERS: "THE MAKING OF THE HUMANITIES III"
The third international conference on the history of the humanities, "The Making of the Humanities III", will take place at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, from 1 till 3 November 2012. http://makingofthehumanitiesiii.blogspot.com/

GOAL OF THE CONFERENCE
This is the third of a biennially organized conference that brings together scholars and historians of humanities disciplines to draw the outlines for a comparative history of the humanities. Although histories of single humanities disciplines exist for quite some time, a comparative history has only very recently been investigated and the first monographs have just appeared.

THEME OF THE 2012 CONFERENCE
The theme of the meeting in 2012 will be "The Making of the Modern Humanities", focusing on the period 1850-2000, as well as four general panels that cross all periods. Topics include all aspects of the history of philology, linguistics, literary studies, musicology, historiography, art history, theatre studies, (new) media studies and other humanities disciplines, with an emphasis on their mutual influences.

PANELS
In addition to the theme of this year's meeting, there will be four general conference panels that cover all periods, areas and disciplines:

Panel I: Objectivity in the Humanities
Panel II: Methodology in the Humanities
Panel III: The Search for Patterns in the Humanities
Panel IV: The Sciences and the Humanities

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Lorraine Daston (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)
John Joseph (University of Edinburgh)
Glenn Most (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa)
Jo Tollebeek (University of Leuven)

SUBMISSIONS
Papers can be submitted to the general theme or to one of the panels. Please indicate on your abstract whether you want your paper to be considered for the general theme or for one of the panels or both.
Send your abstract of maximally 400 words to: HistoryHumanities@gmail.com<mailto:HistoryHumanities@gmail.com>
Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 June 2012
For more information, see http://makingofthehumanitiesiii.blogspot.com/

ORGANIZATION
Huizinga Institute of Cultural History (Working Group History of the Humanities)
Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome
Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam
Rens Bod, Jaap Maat and Thijs Weststeijn (University of Amsterdam)

Female Fury and the Masculine Spirit of Vengeance:
Revenge and Gender from Classical to Early Modern Literature
5-6 September 2012, University of Bristol

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Professors Alison Findlay and Edith Hall

Revenge is often thought of as a quintessentially masculine activity, set in a martial world of blood feuds and patriarchal codes of honour. However, the quest for vengeance can also be portrayed as intensifying passionate feelings traditionally thought of as feminine. In such instances revenge
does not confirm a man's heroic valour, but is a potentially emasculating force, dangerous to his reason, self-mastery, and gender identity. Such alternative ways of viewing revenge are also relevant when the avenger is a woman. To what extent is revenge deemed to be natural or unnatural to a woman, and what is its effect upon her psyche and perceived gender? Does the same impulse which effeminizes a man make a woman dangerously masculine? And how should we view the indirect ways that women influence retribution, such as through mourning, cursing, or goading? Are these an important means of female agency, or do they suggest women's exclusion from active revenge, reinforcing traditional gender roles? Are certain acts of
violence interpreted differently if the perpetrator is a man or woman, father or mother, son or daughter?

This conference aims to explore these questions, re-evaluating the complex and varied ways that gender impacts the performance and interpretation of revenge. Proposed papers may take up any intersection of revenge and gender in texts from Classical to early modern literature, and can focus on individual texts and periods or take an interdisciplinary or cross-temporal
approach. Topics may include, but are not limited to: the ways in which revenge bolsters, threatens or transfigures an individual's gender identity and/or role within the family; how individual acts of vengeance reinforce or undermine homo-social or female bonds; personifications of revenge; how the relationship between gender and revenge are reconfigured in a text's translation, reception, and reinterpretation over time; the ethical, cultural and social implications for the ways in which revenge is gendered.

We invite proposals (250 words) for papers addressing these questions. Submissions from postgraduate students, and early career researchers are welcomed. Pre-formed panel proposals will also be considered. Abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of
abstract, e) body of abstract.

Please send your proposals or any queries to Lesel Dawson: lesel.dawson@bristol.ac.uk
Deadline for proposals: 31 May, 2012

Ancients and Moderns:
81st Anglo-American Conference of Historians
5-6 July 2012
Senate House, London

With the Olympics upon us in the UK it seems an appropriate moment to think more broadly about the ways in which the classical world resonates in our own times, and how successive epochs of modernity since the Renaissance have situated themselves in relation to the various ancient civilisations. From political theory to aesthetics, across the arts of war and of peace, to concepts of education, family, gender, race and slavery, it is hard to think of a facet of the last millennium which has not been informed by the ancient past and through a range of media, including painting, poetry, film and the built environment. The Institute's 81st Anglo-American conference seeks to represent the full extent of work on classical receptions, welcoming not only those scholars who work on Roman, Greek and Judaeo-Christian legacies and influences, but also historians of the ancient kingdoms and empires of Asia and pre-Colombian America. Our plenary lecturers include: Paul Cartledge (Cambridge), Constanze Güthenke (Princeton), Mark Lewis (Stanford), Sanjay Subrahmanyam (UCLA) and David Womersley (Oxford).

Proposals for individual papers, panels (of up to three papers and a session chair) and roundtables are invited. Please send a half-page abstract to the Events Officer, Institute of Historical Research at AncientsandModerns@lon.ac.uk <mailto:AncientsandModerns@lon.ac.uk> by 1 December 2011. Acceptance of proposals will be confirmed by 31st December and the full conference programme published at the end of January. Registrations open on 1 March 2012. Further information on the conference can be found at www.history.ac.uk/aach12 < http://www.history.ac.uk/aach12 > .

On behalf of the 2012 Anglo-American Conference Programme Committee:

Hugh Bowden, King's College, London
Catherine Edwards, Birkbeck College, London
Mike Edwards, Institute of Classical Studies
Rosemary Sweet, University of Leicester
Miles Taylor, Institute of Historical Research
Giorgios Varouxakis, Queen Mary University of London

Bodies in Motion: Contemporary Approaches to Choral Performance
A Panel Sponsored by the Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance
Organized by M. Hopman (Northwestern University) and F. Schironi (University of Michigan)
APA/AIA Joint Annual Meeting, Seattle, January 2013

Call for Papers

The classical chorus' combination of text, music, and dancing is a rare phenomenon in the history of Western theater. The experience was indeed short-lived: choral parts separated the scenes but were not integral to the action in the late comedies of Aristophanes and in Menander; papyri containing choral lyrics prove that anthologies of dramatic choral odes were circulating in the Roman period; choruses sang but did not dance in Roman pantomimes; and with a few exceptions, modern Western theater has dispensed with the chorus altogether. The development of opera in the seventeenth century, followed by the rise of the ballet in the late eighteenth century, led to an institutionalized division between the performing arts. As a result, the Greek chorus often was perceived as an embarrassment in nineteenth and twentieth-century productions of ancient plays.

More recently, however, several productions have offered powerful and highly corporeal interpretations of Greek choruses, often inspired by non-Western dancing traditions. Richard Schechner's Dionysus in 69 (1968), Ariane Mnouchkine's Les Atrides (1990-1992), Katie Mitchell's Oresteia (2000), Wlodzimierz Staniewski's Elektra (2002) and Iphigenia at Aulis (2007), and Anne Bogart's Antigone (2009) are but a few examples of productions that have used the Greek chorus to offer a new form of theater emphasizing collective movement, redefining theatrical space, and questioning the relation between spectators and performers.

Turning our focus to the present moment, we invite panelists to describe and discuss contemporary productions of Greek drama (tragedy and comedy) that emphasize the physicality/corporeality of the chorus. Topics that may be addressed include, but are certainly not limited to, the following: How is collective movement used in the production? Are the choral moves inspired by a particular performative tradition or technique? Do the movements of the chorus respond to specific cues in the Greek text or its translation(s)? Does the chorus contribute to a particular meaning (artistic, political, social, economic) of the dramatic performance as a whole? Can this contemporary rendering of the chorus help us revisit the original ancient performance with fresh eyes?

Please submit abstracts by e-mail attachment by February 8, 2012 to Judith Hallett, jeph@umd.edu .

Abstracts should be only one page in length and must not include the author's name. In accordance with APA regulations, all abstracts will be reviewed anonymously. Please follow the APA guidelines for formatting abstracts, available on-line at: http://apaclassics.org/index.php/annual_meeting/instructions_for_authors_of_abstracts

Go! Classics Go! The Beat Generation, the avant garde and the roots of counterculture

Research workshops at the University of St Andrews and the University of Pennsylvania

The School of Classics, University of St Andrews and the Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania will host joint research workshops that will explore the relationship between the discipline of Classics and the Beat Generation writers of the 1950s and early 60s. The workshops will examine the topic through a range of disciplines and consequently contributors from Classics, American Literature, Comparative Literature, Cultural History, Political Science, Gender Studies, and Music are welcome. There will be two research workshops, one in Philadelphia and one in St Andrews. The joint nature of the project is to provide opportunities for interdisciplinary discussions and exchange of ideas in two discrete locales. It is hoped that speakers will be able to attend both workshops.

This project will consider how the diverse talents of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg , William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso and later those such as Bob Dylan drew on ideas and themes from Classics, as well as each other, for inspiration. There are many others who are part of this movement and John Clellon Holmes; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gary Snyder are the most well known but there are many other names that warrant inclusion. The Black Mountain poets are just one such example.

In Beat poetry and literature Classics is juxtaposed with the avant-garde, and part of literary experimentation, so what some may see as a conservative discipline is a central plank of a counterculture that rejected the post-war norms of the Eisenhower era. Does this show Classics to be an orthodox discipline insensitively appropriated by the Beats, or is it part of a meticulously crafted intellectual view of the mid twentieth century? How and why did the Beat writers explore, utilize and ultimately remould Classics? The workshops will provide an opportunity to explore many aspects of the topic. There is a longer exposition of the research context for debate on the workshop website:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/conferences/index.shtml

There will be two interdisciplinary research workshops :

10th October 2012 at the University of St Andrews

17th November 2012 at the University of Pennsylvania

Proposals are invited for papers on any aspect of the Beat Generation writers' (novelists, poets, musicians) 'utilization' of Classics. The format allows for papers to be no more than 30 minutes' duration, and there will be 10 minutes of questions following each paper. An collected volume of papers from the workshops is planned, and the aim is to submit a manuscript to the publishers in the summer 2013.

Abstracts should not be longer than 500 words, and should include the author's name, institutional affiliation and e-mail address. Please send your submission in either Word or pdf format to Dr Alisdair Gibson:

aggg@st-andrews.ac.uk

Before the 6th January 2012