Oliver Taplin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263235
- eISBN:
- 9780191734328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263235.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter looks at the here and now and the unselfconscious use of Greek and Latin writers by contemporary British and Irish poets. In 1973 an enterprising garland-maker collected together some ...
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This chapter looks at the here and now and the unselfconscious use of Greek and Latin writers by contemporary British and Irish poets. In 1973 an enterprising garland-maker collected together some 850 translations from The Greek Anthology. Most of the versions by the fifty or so contributors were specially commissioned, and they included some excellent epigrams, some by poets already quite well known, including Fleur Adcock, Tony Harrison, Peter Levi, Edwin Morgan and Peter Porter. This discussion states that this volume marks a transition, from an age when a project like this had been primarily the preserve of scholars, and when classical poetry was predominantly the preserve of the few, to the present age when it has been opened up to a wide range of creative artists.Less
This chapter looks at the here and now and the unselfconscious use of Greek and Latin writers by contemporary British and Irish poets. In 1973 an enterprising garland-maker collected together some 850 translations from The Greek Anthology. Most of the versions by the fifty or so contributors were specially commissioned, and they included some excellent epigrams, some by poets already quite well known, including Fleur Adcock, Tony Harrison, Peter Levi, Edwin Morgan and Peter Porter. This discussion states that this volume marks a transition, from an age when a project like this had been primarily the preserve of scholars, and when classical poetry was predominantly the preserve of the few, to the present age when it has been opened up to a wide range of creative artists.
Emily Greenwood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199575244
- eISBN:
- 9780191722189
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575244.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Afro‐Greeks explores dialogues between anglophone Caribbean literature and the complex legacies of ancient Greece and Rome, from the 1920s to the beginning of the twenty‐first century. ...
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Afro‐Greeks explores dialogues between anglophone Caribbean literature and the complex legacies of ancient Greece and Rome, from the 1920s to the beginning of the twenty‐first century. Classics still bears the negative associations of the colonial educational curriculum that was thrust upon the British West Indies with the Victorian triad of the three Cs (Cricket, Classics, and Christianity). In a study that embraces Kamau Brathwaite, Austin Clarke, John Figueroa, C. L. R. James, V. S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott, and Eric Williams, the author traces a distinctive regional tradition of engaging with Classics in the English‐speaking Caribbean. She argues that, following on from C. L. R. James's revisionist approach to the history of ancient Greece, there has been a practice of reading the Classics for oneself in anglophone Caribbean literature, a practice that has contributed to the larger project of the articulation of the Caribbean self. The writers examined offered a strenuous critique of an exclusive, Western conception of Graeco‐Roman antiquity, often conducting this critique through literary subterfuge, playing on the colonial prejudice that Classics did not belong to them. Afro‐Greeks examines both the terms of this critique, and the way in which these writers have made Classics theirs.Less
Afro‐Greeks explores dialogues between anglophone Caribbean literature and the complex legacies of ancient Greece and Rome, from the 1920s to the beginning of the twenty‐first century. Classics still bears the negative associations of the colonial educational curriculum that was thrust upon the British West Indies with the Victorian triad of the three Cs (Cricket, Classics, and Christianity). In a study that embraces Kamau Brathwaite, Austin Clarke, John Figueroa, C. L. R. James, V. S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott, and Eric Williams, the author traces a distinctive regional tradition of engaging with Classics in the English‐speaking Caribbean. She argues that, following on from C. L. R. James's revisionist approach to the history of ancient Greece, there has been a practice of reading the Classics for oneself in anglophone Caribbean literature, a practice that has contributed to the larger project of the articulation of the Caribbean self. The writers examined offered a strenuous critique of an exclusive, Western conception of Graeco‐Roman antiquity, often conducting this critique through literary subterfuge, playing on the colonial prejudice that Classics did not belong to them. Afro‐Greeks examines both the terms of this critique, and the way in which these writers have made Classics theirs.
Emily Greenwood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199575244
- eISBN:
- 9780191722189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575244.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This final chapter argues that the study of the reception of Classics in the anglophone Caribbean needs to focus not just on the dialogue with the literatures of Greece and Rome, but also on the ...
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This final chapter argues that the study of the reception of Classics in the anglophone Caribbean needs to focus not just on the dialogue with the literatures of Greece and Rome, but also on the dialogue between Caribbean authors themselves. To this end, discussion turns to the Jamaican poet Figueroa, who many critics have identified as an important precursor for the New World classicism in Walcott's poetry. Similarly, Kamau Brathwaite's revision of universal history in X/Self is seen to offer an important framework for Caribbean Classics in view of the poet's contention that the Caribbean's history of catastrophe presents a logical vantage point from which to survey the global succession of empires leading back to Rome and beyond. The book concludes with the suggestion that anglophone Caribbean writers have recalibrated the canon so that they are the natural successors of Horace, or Ovid, writing from the provinces and holding the cultural centre.Less
This final chapter argues that the study of the reception of Classics in the anglophone Caribbean needs to focus not just on the dialogue with the literatures of Greece and Rome, but also on the dialogue between Caribbean authors themselves. To this end, discussion turns to the Jamaican poet Figueroa, who many critics have identified as an important precursor for the New World classicism in Walcott's poetry. Similarly, Kamau Brathwaite's revision of universal history in X/Self is seen to offer an important framework for Caribbean Classics in view of the poet's contention that the Caribbean's history of catastrophe presents a logical vantage point from which to survey the global succession of empires leading back to Rome and beyond. The book concludes with the suggestion that anglophone Caribbean writers have recalibrated the canon so that they are the natural successors of Horace, or Ovid, writing from the provinces and holding the cultural centre.
Edwin L. Battistella
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195367126
- eISBN:
- 9780199867356
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367126.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
In the early 1900s, the language of America was becoming colloquial English — the language of the businessman, manager, and professional. Since college and high school education were far from ...
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In the early 1900s, the language of America was becoming colloquial English — the language of the businessman, manager, and professional. Since college and high school education were far from universal, many people turned to correspondence education — that era's distance learning — to learn the art of speaking and writing. By the 1920s and 1930s, thousands were ordering Sherwin Cody's 100% Self‐correcting Course in the English Language, a patented mail‐order course in English that was taken by over 150,000 people. This book tells the story of Sherwin Cody and his famous English course, situating both the man and the course in early 20th century cultural history. The book recounts how Cody became a businessman — a writer, grammatical entrepreneur, and mass‐marketer whose ads proclaimed “Good Money in Good English” and asked “Is Good English Worth 25 Cents to You?” and “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” Sherwin Cody's home‐study approach was perhaps the most widely‐advertised English education program in history, and it provides a unique window into popular views of language and culture and their connection to ideas of success. Cody's work was also part of a larger shift of attitudes about self‐improvement and success. Using Cody's course as a reference point, this book examines the self‐improvement ethic reflected in such products as the Harvard Classics, The Book of Etiquette, the Book‐of‐the‐Month Club, the U.S. School of Music, and the Charles Atlas and Dale Carnegie courses to illustrate how culture became popular and how self‐reliance evolved into self‐improvement.Less
In the early 1900s, the language of America was becoming colloquial English — the language of the businessman, manager, and professional. Since college and high school education were far from universal, many people turned to correspondence education — that era's distance learning — to learn the art of speaking and writing. By the 1920s and 1930s, thousands were ordering Sherwin Cody's 100% Self‐correcting Course in the English Language, a patented mail‐order course in English that was taken by over 150,000 people. This book tells the story of Sherwin Cody and his famous English course, situating both the man and the course in early 20th century cultural history. The book recounts how Cody became a businessman — a writer, grammatical entrepreneur, and mass‐marketer whose ads proclaimed “Good Money in Good English” and asked “Is Good English Worth 25 Cents to You?” and “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” Sherwin Cody's home‐study approach was perhaps the most widely‐advertised English education program in history, and it provides a unique window into popular views of language and culture and their connection to ideas of success. Cody's work was also part of a larger shift of attitudes about self‐improvement and success. Using Cody's course as a reference point, this book examines the self‐improvement ethic reflected in such products as the Harvard Classics, The Book of Etiquette, the Book‐of‐the‐Month Club, the U.S. School of Music, and the Charles Atlas and Dale Carnegie courses to illustrate how culture became popular and how self‐reliance evolved into self‐improvement.
Michael C. Legaspi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394351
- eISBN:
- 9780199777211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394351.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter shifts briefly away from the study of the Bible and focuses on two classical philologists at Göttingen, important representatives of neohumanism: Johann Matthias Gesner and Christian ...
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This chapter shifts briefly away from the study of the Bible and focuses on two classical philologists at Göttingen, important representatives of neohumanism: Johann Matthias Gesner and Christian Gottlob Heyne. In the case of Göttingen, the study of Greece and Rome (the discipline of classics) offers a very close parallel to the study of the Bible. Gesner and Heyne were contemporaries of Michaelis who, like Michaelis, found themselves in a precarious but promising situation: to adapt the study of philology to the realities of the new university, or simply fade into the background. Gesner and Heyne adapted, but without embracing the fervent philhellenism of later Romantics. Their vision of a critically reconstructed antiquity fully intelligible to modern ideals resembles the picture of ancient Israel that Michaelis, through nearly five decades of tireless research and publication, labored to produce.Less
This chapter shifts briefly away from the study of the Bible and focuses on two classical philologists at Göttingen, important representatives of neohumanism: Johann Matthias Gesner and Christian Gottlob Heyne. In the case of Göttingen, the study of Greece and Rome (the discipline of classics) offers a very close parallel to the study of the Bible. Gesner and Heyne were contemporaries of Michaelis who, like Michaelis, found themselves in a precarious but promising situation: to adapt the study of philology to the realities of the new university, or simply fade into the background. Gesner and Heyne adapted, but without embracing the fervent philhellenism of later Romantics. Their vision of a critically reconstructed antiquity fully intelligible to modern ideals resembles the picture of ancient Israel that Michaelis, through nearly five decades of tireless research and publication, labored to produce.
Edwin L. Battistella
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195367126
- eISBN:
- 9780199867356
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367126.003.0009
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
Chapter 9 looks at the advertising and cultural positioning of mail‐order book culture, focusing on the Harvard Classics and the Book‐of‐the Month Club.
Chapter 9 looks at the advertising and cultural positioning of mail‐order book culture, focusing on the Harvard Classics and the Book‐of‐the Month Club.
David Manning
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195182392
- eISBN:
- 9780199851485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182392.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Here indeed was the quintessence of Donald Tovey: unfailing memory, encyclopadic knowledge, and unerring artistic insight. Add to this a delightful literary style and a rare sense of humor, and one ...
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Here indeed was the quintessence of Donald Tovey: unfailing memory, encyclopadic knowledge, and unerring artistic insight. Add to this a delightful literary style and a rare sense of humor, and one can understand why the Reid professor has put the town of Edinburgh on the musical map. The programmes of the Reid concerts alone are enough to prove this. Therefore people all rush out to buy, beg, borrow, or steal each of his volumes of essays as fast as they come out; that on the ninth symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven reaches the summit of artistic analysis. Tovey's playing is said sometimes to be “unpianistic.” When he plays, the music seems almost to take visual shape. As a composer, his love and knowledge of the classics has led him along the great lines of musical thought by the narrow way right up the hill, and not along the way of destruction, to stumble, fall, and rise no more.Less
Here indeed was the quintessence of Donald Tovey: unfailing memory, encyclopadic knowledge, and unerring artistic insight. Add to this a delightful literary style and a rare sense of humor, and one can understand why the Reid professor has put the town of Edinburgh on the musical map. The programmes of the Reid concerts alone are enough to prove this. Therefore people all rush out to buy, beg, borrow, or steal each of his volumes of essays as fast as they come out; that on the ninth symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven reaches the summit of artistic analysis. Tovey's playing is said sometimes to be “unpianistic.” When he plays, the music seems almost to take visual shape. As a composer, his love and knowledge of the classics has led him along the great lines of musical thought by the narrow way right up the hill, and not along the way of destruction, to stumble, fall, and rise no more.
Emma Reisz
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199584727
- eISBN:
- 9780191595301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584727.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter examines links between British fears about the decline of empire during the Edwardian period, and Edwardian scholarship examining the collapse of classical empires. In a climate of ...
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This chapter examines links between British fears about the decline of empire during the Edwardian period, and Edwardian scholarship examining the collapse of classical empires. In a climate of rising anti‐imperial nationalism, some Edwardian imperial apologists considered the British Empire to be weak compared to its ancient counterparts, and attributed this vulnerability to the multi‐racial character of modern imperialism. However, some Edwardian classical scholars argued that race and racial difference had been equally significant in the decline of ancient empires, invoking supposed racial differences in antiquity to explain the decline of both Greece and Rome. Examples examined in detail in this chapter include Cromer's Ancient and modern imperialism and Goetze's Foreign Office murals. The chapter also contains an extended discussion of W. H. S. Jones's studies of malaria in ancient Greece and Rome, including consideration of the role played in Jones's research by Ronald Ross and other experts in tropical medicine.Less
This chapter examines links between British fears about the decline of empire during the Edwardian period, and Edwardian scholarship examining the collapse of classical empires. In a climate of rising anti‐imperial nationalism, some Edwardian imperial apologists considered the British Empire to be weak compared to its ancient counterparts, and attributed this vulnerability to the multi‐racial character of modern imperialism. However, some Edwardian classical scholars argued that race and racial difference had been equally significant in the decline of ancient empires, invoking supposed racial differences in antiquity to explain the decline of both Greece and Rome. Examples examined in detail in this chapter include Cromer's Ancient and modern imperialism and Goetze's Foreign Office murals. The chapter also contains an extended discussion of W. H. S. Jones's studies of malaria in ancient Greece and Rome, including consideration of the role played in Jones's research by Ronald Ross and other experts in tropical medicine.
Edith Hall
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288076
- eISBN:
- 9780191713439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288076.003.0015
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of ...
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Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of modern-language translations. This chapter argues that the phenomenon of the arrival of Greek and Roman authors in modern languages needs to be appreciated in full diachronic depth. It calls for a history of translations of the classics and explores the social implications of this. Translation, especially forms of translation linked to theatrical performance, has allowed the classics to be disseminated to an audience that is much wider and more diversified and internally conflictual than is usually assumed. Exploring the history and role of mass market translations, disinterring long forgotten vernacular versions of classical authors, appreciating the importance of performance as access route to the classics, and applauding the hard work and courage of the pioneers in the field could therefore all have significant roles to play in breaking down the sort of prejudices that, in an era of fast-expanding Higher Education, lead to the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans being discarded altogether. For translation history conducted along these lines can create a new and radicalised tradition that dispels the notion that the study of Greek and Latin has been dominated by an elite group, which was somehow mysteriously endowed with an accordingly refined sensibility.Less
Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of modern-language translations. This chapter argues that the phenomenon of the arrival of Greek and Roman authors in modern languages needs to be appreciated in full diachronic depth. It calls for a history of translations of the classics and explores the social implications of this. Translation, especially forms of translation linked to theatrical performance, has allowed the classics to be disseminated to an audience that is much wider and more diversified and internally conflictual than is usually assumed. Exploring the history and role of mass market translations, disinterring long forgotten vernacular versions of classical authors, appreciating the importance of performance as access route to the classics, and applauding the hard work and courage of the pioneers in the field could therefore all have significant roles to play in breaking down the sort of prejudices that, in an era of fast-expanding Higher Education, lead to the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans being discarded altogether. For translation history conducted along these lines can create a new and radicalised tradition that dispels the notion that the study of Greek and Latin has been dominated by an elite group, which was somehow mysteriously endowed with an accordingly refined sensibility.
Margaret Litvin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691137803
- eISBN:
- 9781400840106
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137803.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter presents the global kaleidoscope theory as a much-needed revision to the Prospero-and-Caliban model of postcolonial rewriting. To this end, the chapter summarizes the actual kaleidoscope ...
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This chapter presents the global kaleidoscope theory as a much-needed revision to the Prospero-and-Caliban model of postcolonial rewriting. To this end, the chapter summarizes the actual kaleidoscope of Hamlets available to Egyptian theatre professionals and audiences by 1964. It argues that the origins of Arab Shakespeare were varied; different sources gained importance in different periods. Nineteenth-century French sources helped plant the seeds of a decisive, heroic Hamlet in pursuit of justice. Direct-from-English translations, with a greater commitment to treating Shakespeare's plays as written texts, became part of the kaleidoscope by the 1930s, as did German-inspired Romantic readings of Hamlet's introspective depths. At the juncture of these competing approaches, the chapter considers a high-profile Egyptian production of Hamlet in 1964–65: an effort to mediate between the British and Soviet readings of Hamlet and a bid to claim Egypt's place on the world stage by showing mastery of the “world classics.”Less
This chapter presents the global kaleidoscope theory as a much-needed revision to the Prospero-and-Caliban model of postcolonial rewriting. To this end, the chapter summarizes the actual kaleidoscope of Hamlets available to Egyptian theatre professionals and audiences by 1964. It argues that the origins of Arab Shakespeare were varied; different sources gained importance in different periods. Nineteenth-century French sources helped plant the seeds of a decisive, heroic Hamlet in pursuit of justice. Direct-from-English translations, with a greater commitment to treating Shakespeare's plays as written texts, became part of the kaleidoscope by the 1930s, as did German-inspired Romantic readings of Hamlet's introspective depths. At the juncture of these competing approaches, the chapter considers a high-profile Egyptian production of Hamlet in 1964–65: an effort to mediate between the British and Soviet readings of Hamlet and a bid to claim Egypt's place on the world stage by showing mastery of the “world classics.”
Mark Bradley (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199584727
- eISBN:
- 9780191595301
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584727.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
In this volume scholars of modern and ancient culture come together to explore historical, textual, material, and theoretical interactions between classics and imperialism during the heyday of the ...
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In this volume scholars of modern and ancient culture come together to explore historical, textual, material, and theoretical interactions between classics and imperialism during the heyday of the British Empire from the late eighteenth century through to its collapse in the early decades of the twentieth century. The contributors examine the multiple dialogues that developed between classics and colonialism in this period and argue that the two exerted a formative influence on each other at a number of important levels. Most at issue in the contexts where classics and empire converged was the critical question of ownership: to whom did the classical past belong? Did the modern communities of the Mediterranean have pre‐eminent ownership of the visual, literary, and intellectual culture of Greece and Rome? Or could the populations and intellectual centres of northern Europe stake a claim to this inheritance? And in what ways could non‐European communities and powers—Africa, India, America—commandeer the classical heritage for themselves? In exploring the relationship between classics and imperialism in this period, the volume examines trends that are of current importance both to the discipline of classics and to modern British cultural and intellectual history. Both classics and empire, it contests, can be better understood by examining them in tandem: the development of classical ideas, classical scholarship, and classical imagery in this period was often directly or indirectly influenced by empire and imperial authority, and the British Empire itself was informed, shaped, legitimized, and evaluated using classical models.Less
In this volume scholars of modern and ancient culture come together to explore historical, textual, material, and theoretical interactions between classics and imperialism during the heyday of the British Empire from the late eighteenth century through to its collapse in the early decades of the twentieth century. The contributors examine the multiple dialogues that developed between classics and colonialism in this period and argue that the two exerted a formative influence on each other at a number of important levels. Most at issue in the contexts where classics and empire converged was the critical question of ownership: to whom did the classical past belong? Did the modern communities of the Mediterranean have pre‐eminent ownership of the visual, literary, and intellectual culture of Greece and Rome? Or could the populations and intellectual centres of northern Europe stake a claim to this inheritance? And in what ways could non‐European communities and powers—Africa, India, America—commandeer the classical heritage for themselves? In exploring the relationship between classics and imperialism in this period, the volume examines trends that are of current importance both to the discipline of classics and to modern British cultural and intellectual history. Both classics and empire, it contests, can be better understood by examining them in tandem: the development of classical ideas, classical scholarship, and classical imagery in this period was often directly or indirectly influenced by empire and imperial authority, and the British Empire itself was informed, shaped, legitimized, and evaluated using classical models.
Susan A. Stephens and Phiroze Vasunia (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199212989
- eISBN:
- 9780191594205
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212989.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Numerous nations have in one way or another engaged with the cultures of classical Greece and Rome. What impact does the classical past have on ideas of the nation, nationhood, nationality, and what ...
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Numerous nations have in one way or another engaged with the cultures of classical Greece and Rome. What impact does the classical past have on ideas of the nation, nationhood, nationality, and what effect does the national space have on classical culture? How has classical culture been imagined in various national traditions, what importance has it had within them, and for whom? This collection of essays by an international team of experts tackles the vexed relationship between Classics and national cultures, presenting essays on many regions, including China, India, Mexico, Japan, and South Africa, as well as Germany, Greece, and Italy. It poses new questions for the study of antiquity and for the history of nations and nationalisms.Less
Numerous nations have in one way or another engaged with the cultures of classical Greece and Rome. What impact does the classical past have on ideas of the nation, nationhood, nationality, and what effect does the national space have on classical culture? How has classical culture been imagined in various national traditions, what importance has it had within them, and for whom? This collection of essays by an international team of experts tackles the vexed relationship between Classics and national cultures, presenting essays on many regions, including China, India, Mexico, Japan, and South Africa, as well as Germany, Greece, and Italy. It poses new questions for the study of antiquity and for the history of nations and nationalisms.
Peter Parsons
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263235
- eISBN:
- 9780191734328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263235.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter describes how the concept of ‘classical’ changes over time by the discovery of new texts. Renaissance scholars collected and printed what they could find. Yet returns soon diminished; ...
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This chapter describes how the concept of ‘classical’ changes over time by the discovery of new texts. Renaissance scholars collected and printed what they could find. Yet returns soon diminished; and the new science of archaeology could apparently do little to help. However, it gradually became apparent that the cities of the Egyptian Greeks preserved in quantity original books and documents in a way not possible in their motherland. And in one aspect, the papyri are an epiphenomenon of Hellenistic and Roman culture. The twentieth century added to the stock of Greek and Latin literature, slowly and piecemeal. Such finds reminds one how much is lost, and how here and there the lost may be found: new pleasures, new contexts, new interpretations, and new blood for the Classics.Less
This chapter describes how the concept of ‘classical’ changes over time by the discovery of new texts. Renaissance scholars collected and printed what they could find. Yet returns soon diminished; and the new science of archaeology could apparently do little to help. However, it gradually became apparent that the cities of the Egyptian Greeks preserved in quantity original books and documents in a way not possible in their motherland. And in one aspect, the papyri are an epiphenomenon of Hellenistic and Roman culture. The twentieth century added to the stock of Greek and Latin literature, slowly and piecemeal. Such finds reminds one how much is lost, and how here and there the lost may be found: new pleasures, new contexts, new interpretations, and new blood for the Classics.
R. R. R. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263235
- eISBN:
- 9780191734328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263235.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the visual aspect, a territory shared with archaeology and art history. The Greek and Roman world poured an astonishing amount of its surplus into expensive monuments and ...
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This chapter explores the visual aspect, a territory shared with archaeology and art history. The Greek and Roman world poured an astonishing amount of its surplus into expensive monuments and elaborate public images, and their study is naturally an important part of classical archaeology. Unlike many other archaeologies, this subject studies a world extremely well documented by abundant and diverse literary and textual evidence, and it is thus part of the wider classics project. The discussion explores some of the great gains made by recent work in this area and some of the remaining deficiencies. Gains have resulted from application of historically based questions, while deficiencies arise from the still largely untheorised nature of this subject's research and discourse.Less
This chapter explores the visual aspect, a territory shared with archaeology and art history. The Greek and Roman world poured an astonishing amount of its surplus into expensive monuments and elaborate public images, and their study is naturally an important part of classical archaeology. Unlike many other archaeologies, this subject studies a world extremely well documented by abundant and diverse literary and textual evidence, and it is thus part of the wider classics project. The discussion explores some of the great gains made by recent work in this area and some of the remaining deficiencies. Gains have resulted from application of historically based questions, while deficiencies arise from the still largely untheorised nature of this subject's research and discourse.
Mary Beard
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263235
- eISBN:
- 9780191734328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263235.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter exemplifies the complexities of the surviving evidence, looking at the literary works of Cicero. The Letters of Cicero are one of the most extraordinary survivals from the ancient world, ...
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This chapter exemplifies the complexities of the surviving evidence, looking at the literary works of Cicero. The Letters of Cicero are one of the most extraordinary survivals from the ancient world, and a correspondence that ranks with the great letter collections of all time, from Abelard to Virginia Woolf. This chapter is an experiment in reading those Letters in a radically old-fashioned way. It poses a question: what difference does the order in which one chooses to read it make to our literary, cultural and historical understanding of the collection? It suggests that there is a strong cultural logic in the order of the letters preserved in the manuscripts. It also examines traditional books and Letters to Atticus and to Friends.Less
This chapter exemplifies the complexities of the surviving evidence, looking at the literary works of Cicero. The Letters of Cicero are one of the most extraordinary survivals from the ancient world, and a correspondence that ranks with the great letter collections of all time, from Abelard to Virginia Woolf. This chapter is an experiment in reading those Letters in a radically old-fashioned way. It poses a question: what difference does the order in which one chooses to read it make to our literary, cultural and historical understanding of the collection? It suggests that there is a strong cultural logic in the order of the letters preserved in the manuscripts. It also examines traditional books and Letters to Atticus and to Friends.
Gong Qian
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099401
- eISBN:
- 9789882207646
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099401.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter examines how nostalgia for the revolutionary past provides ideas for the contemporary TV drama market. The term “Red Classics” (hong se jing dian) has appeared with regularity in Chinese ...
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This chapter examines how nostalgia for the revolutionary past provides ideas for the contemporary TV drama market. The term “Red Classics” (hong se jing dian) has appeared with regularity in Chinese media. These classics were created in the modern era, a conscious endeavor by the Chinese State to promote a revolutionary culture which would mold the socialist subject. The chapter begins by briefly setting the cultural backdrop against which the interest in the Red Classics was rekindled. It then identifies television's main narrative strategies to capture audiences and also considers the role of the state in regulating the production, and influencing the reception of, the genre.Less
This chapter examines how nostalgia for the revolutionary past provides ideas for the contemporary TV drama market. The term “Red Classics” (hong se jing dian) has appeared with regularity in Chinese media. These classics were created in the modern era, a conscious endeavor by the Chinese State to promote a revolutionary culture which would mold the socialist subject. The chapter begins by briefly setting the cultural backdrop against which the interest in the Red Classics was rekindled. It then identifies television's main narrative strategies to capture audiences and also considers the role of the state in regulating the production, and influencing the reception of, the genre.
David Bebbington
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199267651
- eISBN:
- 9780191708220
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267651.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Gladstone’s ideas are far more accessible for analysis now that, following the publication of his diaries, a record of his reading is available. This book traces the evolution of what the diaries ...
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Gladstone’s ideas are far more accessible for analysis now that, following the publication of his diaries, a record of his reading is available. This book traces the evolution of what the diaries reveal as the statesman’s central intellectual preoccupations, theology and classical scholarship, as well as the groundwork of his early Conservatism and his mature Liberalism. In particular, it examines the ideological sources of Gladstone’s youthful opposition to reform before scrutinising his convictions in theology as they developed from Evangelicalism through Orthodox High Churchmanship and Tractarianism to a liberal Catholicism. His classical studies, focused primarily on Homer, also changed over time, from a version designed to defend a traditional worldview to an approach that celebrated human endeavour. An enduring principle of his thought was the importance of community, but a fresh axiom that arose from the modifications of his views was the centrality of all things human. The twin values of community and humanity were the foundations of Gladstone’s rhetoric as Liberal leader, so making him, in terms of recent political thought, a communitarian rather than a liberal, but one with a distinctive humanitarian message. As a result of a thorough scrutiny of Gladstone’s private papers, the Victorian statesman is shown to have derived his standpoint from the Christian and classical sources of his thinking and so to have left an enduring intellectual legacy.Less
Gladstone’s ideas are far more accessible for analysis now that, following the publication of his diaries, a record of his reading is available. This book traces the evolution of what the diaries reveal as the statesman’s central intellectual preoccupations, theology and classical scholarship, as well as the groundwork of his early Conservatism and his mature Liberalism. In particular, it examines the ideological sources of Gladstone’s youthful opposition to reform before scrutinising his convictions in theology as they developed from Evangelicalism through Orthodox High Churchmanship and Tractarianism to a liberal Catholicism. His classical studies, focused primarily on Homer, also changed over time, from a version designed to defend a traditional worldview to an approach that celebrated human endeavour. An enduring principle of his thought was the importance of community, but a fresh axiom that arose from the modifications of his views was the centrality of all things human. The twin values of community and humanity were the foundations of Gladstone’s rhetoric as Liberal leader, so making him, in terms of recent political thought, a communitarian rather than a liberal, but one with a distinctive humanitarian message. As a result of a thorough scrutiny of Gladstone’s private papers, the Victorian statesman is shown to have derived his standpoint from the Christian and classical sources of his thinking and so to have left an enduring intellectual legacy.
Anthony Snodgrass
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263020
- eISBN:
- 9780191734199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263020.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Nick Hammond stands in a class of his own among Fellows of the Academy. His scholarly achievement was shaped by many untypical factors. His lifelong devotion to education, in every sense and at every ...
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Nick Hammond stands in a class of his own among Fellows of the Academy. His scholarly achievement was shaped by many untypical factors. His lifelong devotion to education, in every sense and at every level from the secondary onwards, gave it an unusual direction: until late in his life, much of his research had been driven by his teaching. His boldness in venturing into widely diverse branches of Classics, together with his intensely personal view of the activity of research, is reflected in his own unclassifiable status; the fact that he had had no formal research supervisor of his own, nor was later in a position to attract a large following of research pupils, accentuated this. With little doubt, his best work was to be found in the fields where not only his exhaustive knowledge of the ancient sources, but also his personal virtues and experiences had full rein: the volume on Epirus, the trilogy on Macedonia, and the best of his battle-reconstructions where he had walked over the landscape.Less
Nick Hammond stands in a class of his own among Fellows of the Academy. His scholarly achievement was shaped by many untypical factors. His lifelong devotion to education, in every sense and at every level from the secondary onwards, gave it an unusual direction: until late in his life, much of his research had been driven by his teaching. His boldness in venturing into widely diverse branches of Classics, together with his intensely personal view of the activity of research, is reflected in his own unclassifiable status; the fact that he had had no formal research supervisor of his own, nor was later in a position to attract a large following of research pupils, accentuated this. With little doubt, his best work was to be found in the fields where not only his exhaustive knowledge of the ancient sources, but also his personal virtues and experiences had full rein: the volume on Epirus, the trilogy on Macedonia, and the best of his battle-reconstructions where he had walked over the landscape.
Eric Handley
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263020
- eISBN:
- 9780191734199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263020.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Tom Webster grew up in London and lived there for twenty years in middle and later life, when he was Professor of Greek in the University at University College, the scene of much of his most fruitful ...
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Tom Webster grew up in London and lived there for twenty years in middle and later life, when he was Professor of Greek in the University at University College, the scene of much of his most fruitful work. For seventeen years before that, he was Hulme Professor of Greek at Manchester, taking up his appointment at the age of twenty-six, as the University recalled with pride and affection when it made him, in 1965, an honorary Doctor of Letters. He began his academic career with eight years (mainly) at Oxford, as an undergraduate and then a young don at Christ Church, with a fruitful interlude at Leipzig; he ended it with six years at Stanford, as Professor of Classics and then Emeritus. At and after the end of the First World War he was a schoolboy at Charterhouse; during the Second World War he served as an officer in Military Intelligence.Less
Tom Webster grew up in London and lived there for twenty years in middle and later life, when he was Professor of Greek in the University at University College, the scene of much of his most fruitful work. For seventeen years before that, he was Hulme Professor of Greek at Manchester, taking up his appointment at the age of twenty-six, as the University recalled with pride and affection when it made him, in 1965, an honorary Doctor of Letters. He began his academic career with eight years (mainly) at Oxford, as an undergraduate and then a young don at Christ Church, with a fruitful interlude at Leipzig; he ended it with six years at Stanford, as Professor of Classics and then Emeritus. At and after the end of the First World War he was a schoolboy at Charterhouse; during the Second World War he served as an officer in Military Intelligence.
Adrian Hollis
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263204
- eISBN:
- 9780191734205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263204.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Spencer Barrett in many ways seems to have been an old-style Oxford classics don. He did not move very far from his base. He did not lecture outside England (although he was certainly invited to ...
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Spencer Barrett in many ways seems to have been an old-style Oxford classics don. He did not move very far from his base. He did not lecture outside England (although he was certainly invited to speak in America) and not very often outside Oxford. He did not even visit Greece until middle age, and that was partly to confirm some details of the topography of Trozen about which, essentially, he had already made up his mind. His published work, though superb in quality, was modest in quantity, considering that he had such a long career. In 1964 his book Hippolytus was published, which became essential reading for any scholar working seriously on Greek Tragedy. Apart from Hippolytus, Barrett's most important publication was a sixty-five-page discussion of Sophocles' Niobe (and other plays on the same theme) in Richard Carden's book, The Papyrus Fragments of Sophocles.Less
Spencer Barrett in many ways seems to have been an old-style Oxford classics don. He did not move very far from his base. He did not lecture outside England (although he was certainly invited to speak in America) and not very often outside Oxford. He did not even visit Greece until middle age, and that was partly to confirm some details of the topography of Trozen about which, essentially, he had already made up his mind. His published work, though superb in quality, was modest in quantity, considering that he had such a long career. In 1964 his book Hippolytus was published, which became essential reading for any scholar working seriously on Greek Tragedy. Apart from Hippolytus, Barrett's most important publication was a sixty-five-page discussion of Sophocles' Niobe (and other plays on the same theme) in Richard Carden's book, The Papyrus Fragments of Sophocles.
