About the Book
Examining the profusion of ways in which the arts, culture, and thought of Greece and Rome have been transmitted, interpreted, adapted and used, A Companion to Classical Receptions explores the impact of this phenomenon on both ancient and later societies. * Provides a comprehensive introduction and overview of classical reception - the interpretation of classical art, culture, and thought in later centuries, and the fastest growing area in classics * Brings together 34 essays by an international group of contributors focused on ancient and modern reception concepts and practices * Combines close readings of key receptions with wider contextualization and discussion * Explores the impact of Greek and Roman culture worldwide, including crucial new areas in Arabic literature, South African drama, the history of photography, and contemporary ethics
Table of Contents:
Figures. Contributors. Introduction: Making Connections (Lorna Hardwick, Open University and Christopher Stray, University of Wales). Part I: Reception within Antiquity and Beyond. 1. Reception and Tradition (Felix Budelmann, Open University and Johannes Haubold, Durham University). 2. The Ancient Reception of Homer (Barbara Graziosi, Durham University). 3. Poets on Socrates' Stage: Plato's Reception of Dramatic Art (Chris Emlyn-Jones, Open University). 4. 'Respectable in its ruins': Achaemenid Persia, Ancient and Modern (Thomas Harrison, University of Liverpool). 5. Basil of Caesarea and Greek Tragedy (Ruth Webb, Birkbeck College and Universite Paris X). Part II: Transmission, Acculturation and Critique. 6. 'Our Debt to Greece and Rome': Canons, Class and Ideology (Seth L. Schein, University of California). 7. Gladstone on the Classics (David W. Bebbington, University of Stirling). 8. Between Colonialism and Independence: Eric Williams and the Uses of Classics in Trinidad in the 1950s and 1960s (Emily Greenwood, University of St Andrews). 9. Virgilian Contexts (Stephen Harrison, Corpus Christi College and University of Oxford). Part III: Translation. 10. Colonization, Closure or Creative Dialogue?: The Case of Pope's Iliad (David Hopkins, University of Bristol). 11. Translation at the Intersection of Traditions: The Arab Reception of the Classics (Ahmed Etman, Cairo University). 12. 'Enough Give in It': Translating the Classical Play (J. Michael Walton, University of Hull). 13. Lost in Translation? The Problem of (Aristophanic) Humour (James Robson, Open University). Part IV: Theory and Practice. 14. Making It New: Andre Gide's Rewriting of Myth (Cashman Kerr Prince, University of Southern California). 15. 'What Difference Was Made?': Feminist Models of Reception (Vanda Zajko, University of Bristol). 16. History and Theory: Moses and Monotheism and the Historiography of the Repressed (Miriam Leonard, University College, London). 17. Performance Reception: Canonization and Periodization (Pantelis Michelakis, University of Bristol). Part V: Performing Arts. 18. Iphigenie en Tauride and Elektra: 'Apolline' and 'Dionysiac' Receptions of Greek Tragedy into Opera (Michael Ewans, University of Newcastle, Australia). 19. Performance Histories (Fiona Macintosh, St Cross College, University of Oxford). 20. 'Body and Mask' in Performances of Classical Drama on the Modern Stage (Angeliki Varakis, University of Kent). 21. The Nomadic Theatre of the Societas Raffaello Sanzio: A Case of Postdramatic Reworking of (the Classical) Tragedy (Freddy Decreus, University of Ghent). 22. Aristophanes between Israelis and Palestinians (Nurit Yaari, Tel Aviv University). Part VI: Film. 23. Working with Film: Theories and Methodologies (Joanna Paul, University of Liverpool). 24. The Odyssey from Homer to NBC: The Cyclops and the Gods (Hanna M. Roisman, Colby College, Maine). 25. A New Hope: Film as a Teaching Tool for the Classics (Marianne McDonald, University of California). Part VII: Cultural Politics. 26. Possessing Rome: The Politics of Ruins in Roma capitale (Catharine Edwards, Birkbeck College, University of London). 27. 'You unleash the tempest of tragedy': The 1903 Athenian Production of Aeschylus' Oresteia (Gonda van Steen, University of Arizona). 28. Multicultural Reception: Greek Drama in South Africa in the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-first centuries (Betine van Zyl Smit, University of Nottingham). 29. Putting the Class into Classical Reception (Edith Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London). Part VIII: Changing Contexts. 30. Reframing the Homeric: Images of the Odyssey in the Art of Derek Walcott and Romare Bearden (Gregson Davis, Duke University, North Carolina). 31. 'Plato's Stepchildren': SF and the Classics (Sarah Annes Brown, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge). 32. Aristotle's Ethics Old and New (Rosalind Hursthouse, University of Auckland). 33. Classicizing Bodies in the Male Photographic Tradition (Bryan E. Burns, University of Southern California). 34. Homer in British World War One Poetry (Elizabeth Vandiver, Whitman College, Walla Walla). Part IX: Reflection and Critique. 35. Reception Studies: Future Prospects (James I. Porter, University of Michigan). Bibliography. Index.
About the Author :
Lorna Hardwick is Professor of Classical Studies and Director of the Reception of Classical Texts Research Project at the Open University. Her publications on Greek cultural history and its reception in modern theatre and literature include Translating Words, Translating Cultures (2000), New Surveys in the Classics: Reception Studies (2003) and (co-edited with Carol Gillespie) Classics in Post-colonial Worlds (2007). Christopher Stray is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Swansea. He is the author of Classics Transformed: Schools Universities, and Society in England 1830-1960 (1998), and editor of The Owl of Minerva (2005), Classical Books (2007) and Remaking the Classics (2007).
Review :
"It is impossible in a short review to do justice to every single contribution of this multifaceted volume. One of the many attractive features of this collection is that it offers not only innovative essays about the reception and translation of the most read authors of antiquity ... but also expands the horizon of the reception studies by introducing into the discussion untraditional themes and providing original approaches to the concepts frequently discussed in the context of reception." (The Classical Outlook, Fall 2008) "This volume is an essential introduction to reception studies for both school and university students ... .Written in an accessible and engaging manner with useful sections for further reading." (Journal of Classics Teaching, Autumn 2008) "...importantly, this volume exemplifies the recent boom in reception studies, and its potential to critique our subject and methodology." (Greece and Rome, Vol 55 No. 2 2008) "The scale of this enterprise is such that the complete collection will compete with established reference works ... and should prove useful." (Scholia Reviews, 2008) "Hardwick and Stray's Companion pushes lingering worries about elitism and irrelevance right off the table. Companion offers bold reasons to treat classical studies as the cosmopolitan glue of the postmodern world. The book sparkles with the excitement that makes A Companion to Classical Receptions such an eye-opening delight." (Times Literary Supplement, October 2008) "Bursting-at-the-seams ... An eye-opening delight." (Times Literary Supplement) "A spectacular volume from the massive series of 'Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World' ... The editors have pulled in a wider splay of trades and topics than any of their companions' companions or their own now mushrooming rivals can boast." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review) "There is sufficient careful scholarship, critical analysis, and contextualisation in this collection to warrant the claim that it provides a sophisticated and far-ranging overview of this burgeoning and dynamic field." (Scholia)
