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Challis, Deborah Joy. "Collecting classics : the reception of classical antiquities in public museums in England, 1830-1890." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.417268.
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Paschalis, Sergios. "Tragic palimpsests: The reception of Euripides in Ovid's Metamorphoses." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467245.
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The subject of this dissertation is the reception of Euripidean tragedy in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
In Chapter 1 I offer a general survey of the afterlife of Euripidean drama in the major mediating
intertexts between Euripides and Ovid, namely Hellenistic poetry, Roman Republican tragedy,
and Virgil’s Aeneid, as well as a review of the pervasive presence of the Greek tragedian in the
Ovidian corpus. Chapter 2 focuses on the reception of Euripides’ Bacchae in the
Metamorphoses. The starting point of my analysis is Ovid’s epic rewriting of the Euripidean play
in the Pentheus episode. Next, I argue that Ovid makes use of the allusive technique of
“fragmentation”, in the sense that he grafts elements of the Bacchae in the narratives of the
Minyads and Orpheus. The final section examines Ovid’s portrayal of Procne, Medea, and
Byblis as maenads and their evocation of the Virgilian Bacchants Dido and Amata. In Chapter 3
I begin by investigating Ovid’s intertextual engagement with Euripides’ Medea in the Medea
narrative of Book 7, which is read as an epicized “mega-tragedy” encompassing the Colchian’s
entire mythical career. In the second part of the chapter I discuss the Roman poet’s reworking of
the Euripidean tragedy in other episodes of the Metamorphoses and argue that Procne, Althaea,
and Deianira constitute “refractions” of Euripides’ Medea. Chapter 4 examines Ovid’s epic
refashioning of Euripides’ Hecuba, which he merges with Virgil’s alternative variant of the
Polydorus myth in Aeneid 3. The Roman poet reshapes the main plot components of the Greek
play, but also makes subtle allusions to the Virgilian version of the story. Chapter 5 is devoted to
the episode of Virbius in Metamorphoses 15. Ovid produces a novel version of the myth by
melding together his Euripidean model with Virgilian and Sophoclean intertexts. The Roman
poet adapts Virgil’s Virbius story in Aeneid 7 by altering its context from a catalogue of Latin
warriors into an exchange between Virbius and the nymph Egeria. Moreover, the Ovidian
narrative draws on Euripides’ two Hippolytus plays, the extant Hippolytos Stephanephoros and
the fragmentary Hippolytos Kalyptomenos, as well as on Sophocles’ Phaedra.Classics
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Froelich, Jakob. "Classical Perspectives at the End of Antiquity." Thesis, Boston College, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107418.
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Thesis advisor: Mark ThatcherRome changed throughout its history and the city that existed during the fourth century CE was different from the city that Virgil and Cicero lived in and described in their writings. The Roman state and society changed during the intervening four centuries as Rome ceased to be politically significant, elite behavior became increasingly disconnected from any role in governance, and the traditional religious cults were neglected as Christianity gained prominence. Despite these changes, Roman tradition dictated an idealization of ancestral custom, which was preserved in the corpus of extant literature. I argue that among the elites of fourth century society, there were individuals such as Ammianus Marcellinus or Symmachus who interpreted and responded to their society through the filter of these fossilized images of an idealized Rome. Although they lived in largely post-classical time, their writings express a worldview that is congruent with the late Republic and early Principate
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017
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Bouchard, Dominique S. "The reception of Classical antiquity in Calabria, 500-1700." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.600390.
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This study considers the reception of classical objects in Calabria from the final years of Roman dominance in the region to the end of Spanish Habsburg control of the Kingdom of Naples at the end of the seventeenth century. It argues that despite political and cultural fragmentation across the region, the reception of Greek and/or Roman objects in Calabria has had a continuous role in the development of a regional identity with multiple socio-political and cultural facets. By tracing developments in the discovery, collection and scholarship of classical antiquities in Calabria, this study helps to highlight interpretations of classical objects across overlapping geopolitical areas and periods of time. It shows how reception of ancient Greek and Roman antiquities evolved over time and how the manner of their discovery, display and scholarship influenced reception in later periods and therefore nuanced aspects of reception in different periods can best be understood in the context of past receptions. It is therefore a secondary argument of this study that reception is usefully studied as a self-reflexive tradition of interpretation and reinterpretation across temporal and geographic boundaries. Archival evidence from Calabria helps to support an approach to the past in which historical authenticity was regulated by texts rather display.
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Vaananen, Katrina Victoria. "Renaissance Reception of Classical Poetry in Fracastoro’s Morbus Gallicus." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1506444910819066.
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Wentzel, Rocki Tong. "Reception, gifts, and desire in Augustines’s Confessions and Vergil’s Aeneid." The Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1198858389.
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Walsh, Philip Alexander. "Comedy and conflict : the modern reception of Aristophanes." View abstract/electronic edition; access limited to Brown University users, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3324389.
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Potter, Amanda Jayne. "Viewer reception of classical myth in Xena: warrior princess and Charmed." Thesis, Open University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.601799.
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This thesis engages with the representation of Greek myths and mythical characters in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001) and Charmed (1998-2006), by adapting a viewer-centric methodology used in television studies. I include episodes of the series featuring the story of Pandor a, the Furies, Amazons and Greek goddesses. Although the main focus of my research was on viewer reception of the television episodes, I also include an analysis of the ancient sources that may have been used by the television writers and producers, providing textual evidence where there is clear influence. Throughout my thesis I analyse data obtained from viewers about their understanding of the myths and their reactions to the episodes. These viewers were recruited into three groups; fans of the series, classicists who had completed as a minimum a first degree in a classics-related subject, and' general viewers', a group of viewers who were neither fans nor classicists. Data was obtained via recorded focus group discussions and written or email 'interview questionnaires', completed between 2006 and 2011. As part of their viewing experience the classicists and ,many of the fans were able to draw on information that they had gained about the myths from sources outside the television episodes. The general viewers had a limited understanding of the myths before watching the episodes. I argue that these groups of viewers tended to react in different ways to the episodes, and to sources of Greek myths in general. However, viewers across all groups were able to understand and enjoy the episodes. Series' creators can therefore appeal to a wide audience, by incorporating and often subverting mythic content to tell a modem story, which can be understood by all.
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Chan, Kwok-kou Leonard, and 陳國球. "The reception of Tang poetry in the Ming neo-classical criticism." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1988. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31231081.
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Barker, Georgina Frances. "Russia's classical alter ego, 1963-2016 : classical reception in the poetry of Elena Shvarts, Il’ia Kutik, and Polina Barskova." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22965.
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Classical reception, suppressed under Stalin, returned to Soviet poetry during the Thaw (c. 1953-63), and through the many political upheavals of the late twentieth century it has remained a prominent trend in contemporary Russian poetry. This thesis explores classical reception in the oeuvres of Elena Shvarts, Il’ia Kutik, and Polina Barskova, whose poetry spans from 1963 to the present. They form part of – and serve as case studies for – the wider trend of late- and post-Soviet poetic engagement with classical antiquity. This phenomenon has been studied in the cases of Thaw poets Iosif Brodskii and, to a lesser extent, Aleksandr Kushner, but investigations have not extended beyond these figures to the succeeding Stagnation and post-Soviet poets. Shvarts, Kutik, and Barskova come from different generations and different poetic schools, and have very different poetic styles. They share a sustained and playful engagement with the literature and history of Ancient Greece and Rome, which is often in dialogue with earlier Russian receptions of classical antiquity. Their classical reception is frequently intended to ‘estrange’ Soviet/Russian contexts, thus making antiquity an ‘alter ego’ of Russia. This objective is facilitated – and inspired – by the Russian literary tradition. Since its inception Russian literature has set classical antiquity before itself as a model, imitating its literary forms and emulating its characters. This long-standing analogy between Russia and the classical world underpins Shvarts, Kutik, and Barskova’s evocations of classical antiquity as Russia’s alter ego. The utility of the classical alter ego lies precisely in its alterity: as well as a vehicle for veiled dissidence, as with Aesopian speech, it can be a more extreme, or fun, or ideal reality. Inherent in Shvarts, Kutik, and Barskova’s recourse to classical reception as alter ego is a desire to connect with Europe, from which Russians were palpably divided for much of the twentieth century – the Mandel’shtamian ‘yearning for world culture’. It stems also from their desire to connect with pre-Soviet (classically receptive) Russian literature. The thesis begins with a history of classical reception in Russian literature from Russia’s first contact with the classical world up to the present. Such a history is crucial to understanding contemporary poets’ classical reception, as so many of their references to classical antiquity are refracted through Russian intertexts. The chapters on Shvarts, Kutik, and Barskova examine the entire oeuvre (to date) of each poet, selecting key poems and themes for close analysis. This is conducted alongside the intertexts (quotations from classical texts are given in English only, except where the original language has demonstrably informed reception). As well as literary contexts, historical and personal contexts are considered. Interviews conducted by the author with both living poets (Kutik and Barskova) inform the analysis. This thesis contends that the pervasive classical reception evident in Russian poetry from 1953 to the present responds to the series of ontological crises Russia was precipitated into by the upheavals of the twentieth century. With the loosening of Socialist Realism’s control over literature after Stalin, Russian poets resume Russia’s poetic tradition of using classical antiquity as an alter ego, both to heighten portrayals of Russia, and to imagine another, alternate, Russia.
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Schoess, Ann-Sophie. "Re-writing Ariadne : following the thread of literary and artistic representations of Ariadne's abandonment." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2018. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:dfe15854-b0d8-4971-9127-c60e2417ad62.
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This thesis takes Ariadne's abandonment as a case study in order to examine the literary processes of reception that underlie the transmission of classical myth in different eras and cultural contexts - from Classical Antiquity through the Italian Renaissance. Rather than focusing on the ways in which visual representations of Ariadne relate to literary treatments, it draws attention to the literary reliance on a cultural framework, shared by writer and reader, that enables dynamic storytelling. It argues that literary variation of the myth is central to its successful transmission, not least because it allows for appropriations and adaptations that can be made to fit new social and religious parameters, such as Christian conventions in the Middle Ages. In focusing on the important role played by the visual arts in the classical tradition, this research further challenges the still prevalent misconception that the visual arts are secondary to literature, and refutes the common assumption that the relationship between image and text is unidirectional. It highlights the visual impulses leading to paradigm shifts in the literary treatment of the abandonment narrative, and examines the ways in which writers engage with the visual tradition in order to re-shape the ancient narrative. Throughout, attention is drawn to the visual and cultural framework shared by ancient writers and readers, and to the lack of engagement with this framework in traditional classical scholarship. Through its focus on the literary narratives' visuality and mutability, this thesis offers a new paradigm for studying classical myth and its reception.
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Bocksberger, Sophie Marianne. "Telamonian Ajax : a study of his reception in Archaic and Classical Greece." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a9bacb2a-7ede-4603-9e6a-bf7f492332ed.
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This thesis is a systematic study of the representations of Telamonian Ajax in archaic and classical Greece. Its aim is to trace, examine, and understand how and why the constitutive elements of his myth evolved in the way they did in the long chain of its receptions. Particular attention is paid to the historical, socio-cultural and performative contexts of the literary works and visual representations I analyse as well as to the audience for which these were produced. The study is divided into three parts, each of which reflects a different reality in which Ajax has been received (different with respect to time, place, or literary genre). Artistic representations of the hero, as well as his religious dimension and political valence, are consistently taken into account throughout the thesis. The first part - Ajax from Salamis - focuses on epic poetry, and thus investigates the Panhellenic significance of the hero (rather than his reception in a particular place). It treats the entire corpus of early Greek hexameter poetry that has come down to us in written form as the reception of a common oral tradition which each poem has adapted for its own purpose. I establish that in the larger tradition of the Trojan War, Ajax was a hero characterised by his gift of invulnerability. Because of this power, he is the figure who protects his companions - dead or alive - par excellence. However, this ability probably also led him to become over-confident, and, accordingly, to reject Athena's support on the battlefield. Hence, the goddess's hostility towards him, which she demonstrated by making him lose the reward of apioteia (Achilles' arms). His defeat made Ajax so angry that he became mad and committed suicide. I also show how this traditional Ajax has been adapted to fit into the Iliad's own aesthetics. The second part - Ajax in Aegina - concentrates on the reception of Ajax in the victory odes of Pindar and Bacchylides for Aeginetan patrons. I argue that in the first part of the fifth century, Ajax becomes a figure imbued with a strong political dimension (especially with regard to the relationship between Athens and Aegina). Accordingly, I show how the presence of Ajax in Pindar's and Bacchylides' poems is often politically charged, and significant within the historical context. I discuss the influence this had on his representation. Finally, the third part moves to Athens, as I consider Ajax's reception during three distinct periods: the sixth century, the first half of the fifth century, and finally the rest of the classical period. I equally insist on the political dimension of the figure. I demonstrate that his figure undergoes a shift of paradigm in the early fifth century, which deeply affects his representation. By following in the footsteps of Ajax, this study prompts a series of reflections and comments on each of the works in which the hero features as well as on the relationship of these works to the historical context in which they were produced.
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Stefanidou, Agapi. "The Reception of epic Kleos in Greek Tragedy." The Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386695983.
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D'Andrea, Paola. "Classical reception in Sir Walter Scott's Scottish novels : the role of Greece and Rome in the making of historico-national fiction." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.722557.
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Alharthey, Mansoor Mohammad. "Literary reception in Classical Arabic rhetoric : the case of Al-Āmedī’s Al-Muwāzanah." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/13881/.
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This thesis explores the nature of literary reception in Classical Arabic rhetoric, in particular the concept of horizon of expectations, by undertaking a detailed analysis of a key critical work from the fourth century AH, al-Āmedī’s Al-Muwāzanah. It begins by tracing those ideas that contributed to the development of reception theory and then examines in depth two concepts which are of central importance in this research, namely, the horizon of expectations (Hans Robert Jauss) and the role of the reader (Wolfgang Iser). In addition to outlining the Western understanding of the elements of this theory, consideration is given to its counterpart in Arabic rhetoric and the obstacles which prevented it from developing along similar lines. The main sociocultural influences that contributed to the formation of the Arab worldview during the Abbasid era are discussed together with the main philosophical debates which served to shape the reading strategies and horizon of expectations of Classical literary scholars. Close textual reading of al-Āmedī’s Al-Muwāzanah is used to analyse the methodological principles which underpin his explicit critical framework and to reveal the implicit criteria, including ʿamūd al-shiʿr, which he uses to evaluate the poetry of Abū Tammām and al-Buḥturī. It is argued that identification of these aspects of the text can be used to provide an insight into al-Āmedī’s horizon of expectations and, more broadly, to reflect the strategies which were used to read, interpret and evaluate literary texts during the Classical period.
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Pryor, Clare. "Intertextuality and the Sublime in the Writings of Paulinus of Nola." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2022. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/29536.
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This thesis analyses a selection of sublime passages from the festive poems, verse epistles, and prose letters of Paulinus of Nola. I posit the existence of an “ascetic sublime” which constitutes a distinctive feature of Paulinus’s post-conversion writing, and through which Paulinus conceptualises his ascetic identity. In this thesis, I conduct a chronological analysis of Paulinus’s writing. I begin with his pre-conversion correspondence with Ausonius of Bordeaux, which features a conception of the sublime familiar from classical Greco-Roman literature and rhetorical theory: namely, as a sophisticated and elevated style of writing that a poet strives to attain. The discussion of sublimity within these early letters occurs through classical allusion, notably to the myth of Icarus. I then trace the development of Paulinus’s so-called “ascetic sublime”, showing how it both adapts motifs and themes from the classicising sublimity of Paulinus’s early correspondence, and departs from it in important ways. The “ascetic sublime” is characterised by a blend of biblical and classical intertextuality; a focus on paradoxical emotions and concepts; and a Christian re-imagining of classical sublime topoi such as the flight of the mind. Paulinus uses the “ascetic sublime” across various forms of Christian writing to express key aspects of his ascetic identity and practice, and his Christian literary identity. In particular, philosophical sublime topoi become metaphors for the reading of scripture, prayer, contemplation, and the practice of virtue. Further, I argue that the distinctive blend of biblical and classical intertextuality in Paulinus’s “ascetic sublime” serves at least two purposes. Firstly, it allows him to express ascetic Christian concepts to a non-ascetic audience. Secondly, its presence even in letters sent to ascetic recipients suggests that it was also a “thinking tool” which enabled Paulinus to conceptualise key ascetic ideas in familiar language.
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Ward, Marchella. "Towards a grammar of theatrical blindness." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2018. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8376616c-d537-4e2e-93ad-6f06665d252d.
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Since the fifth century, the theatre has been a place for seeing. In spite of this, blind figures repeatedly appear on the stage, from Oedipus, Polymestor, Tiresias and the Cyclops to Shakespeare's Gloucester, Beckett's Hamm, Friel's Molly Sweeney and Kane's Ian. These blind characters have an important role to play in articulating the task of the spectator, both in their aural and imaginative construction of the fictional world in pre-naturalistic theatre, and also in their ability to see through the dramatic illusion in later drama. These scenes of blindness and blinding also have consequences for reception studies, since the relationship between them is not straightforwardly a textual reception history. Instead, these blind characters and the scenes in which they appear are read as what Deleuze and Guattari term an 'assemblage': a heterogenous multiplicity that is produced at the moment of reading / watching with reference to other scenes of blindness and blinding. This thesis sketches out a grammar for such an assemblage, and each chapter focuses on a rule in this grammar. When read as part of an assemblage of blindness, blind characters always have a special relationship with death (Chapter 2), showcase their own performance (Chapter 3), undermine the fictional setting that has been established onstage (Chapter 4), have access to a kind of superhuman knowledge (Chapter 5) and alter the position of their spectators (Chapter 6). Each chapter is structured around a particular moment when the theatre's interest in blind characters resurges, as a response to changes in the social, cultural or scientific understanding of vision and visual impairment. In each chapter, the grammar that is outlined in Chapter 1 with reference to ancient plays returns to the fore, but is refracted through the historical period back on to the grammar of the assemblage.
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Richards, John. "Thucydides in the Circle of Philip Melanchthon." The Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376788422.
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Rojcewicz, Stephen J. "Our tears| Thornton Wilder's reception and Americanization of the Latin and Greek classics." Thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10260313.
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I argue in this dissertation that Thornton Wilder is a poeta doctus, a learned playwright and novelist, who consciously places himself within the classical tradition, creating works that assimilate Greek and Latin literature, transforming our understanding of the classics through the intertextual aspects of his writings. Never slavishly following his ancient models, Wilder grapples with classical literature not only through his fiction set in ancient times but also throughout his literary output, integrating classical influences with biblical, medieval, Renaissance, early modern, and modern sources. In particular, Wilder dramatizes the Americanization of these influences, fulfilling what he describes in an early newspaper interview as the mission of the American writer: merging classical works with the American spirit.
Through close reading; examination of manuscript drafts, journal entries, and correspondence; and philological analysis, I explore Wilder’s development of classical motifs, including the female sage, the torch race of literature, the Homeric hero, and the spread of manure. Wilder’s first published novel, The Cabala, demonstrates his identification with Vergil as the Latin poet’s American successor. Drawing on feminist scholarship, I investigate the role of female sages in Wilder’s novels and plays, including the example of Emily Dickinson. The Skin of Our Teeth exemplifies Wilder’s metaphor of literature as a “Torch Race,” based on Lucretius and Plato: literature is a relay race involving the cooperation of numerous peoples and cultures, rather than a purely competitive endeavor.
Vergil’s expression, sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt [Here are the tears of the world, and human matters touch the heart] (Vergil: Aeneid 1.462), haunts much of Wilder’s oeuvre. The phrase lacrimae rerum is multivocal, so that the reader must interpret it. Understanding lacrimae rerum as “tears for the beauty of the world,” Wilder utilizes scenes depicting the wonder of the world and the resulting sorrow when individuals recognize this too late. Saturating his works with the spirit of antiquity, Wilder exhorts us to observe lovingly and to live life fully while on earth. Through characters such as Dolly Levi in The Matchmaker and Emily Webb in Our Town, Wilder transforms Vergil’s lacrimae rerum into “Our Tears.”
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Abed, Majid AbdulHameed. "British Orientalism and Classical Arabic literature : a study in reception, according to Jauss's theory." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/15350/.
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The primary aim of this thesis is to develop an aesthetic approach for the study of the British Orientalist discourse in relation to Arabic classical literature. The thesis explores three literary eras; Pre colonialism, colonialism, and Post colonialism, adopting Hans Robert Jauss’s theorisation of ‘literary history’ as a theoretical framework. The theoretical framework of the thesis is, also, informed by Edward Said’s seminal contributions to the subject, though without necessarily endorsing all his assumptions and conclusions. The thesis is divided into six chapters. In Chapter 1, Juass’s assumption in its relation to literary history is explored, displaying how it can be a valuable framework to study the history of the British Orientalist discourse. Chapter 2 is designed to examine Edward Said’s understanding of Orientalism, by exploring his supporters-opponents’ views. The last three Chapters are organized to investigate the contributions made by the British Orientalists and critique of the impact these contributions had on our understanding of Arabic literature. The thesis is concluded by chapter six, which summarizes the important findings of the work. The key finding of the study is that although there are disparate responses in dealing with classical Arabic literature, most British scholars belong to the same pure academic school of knowledge. This knowledge has accumulated systematically over a long period of research and it is still being built upon. What is most remarkable about this academic knowledge is that it was produced without political involvement.
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Ryan, John. "Science and Poetry in the Early Reception of Aratus'' Phaenomena." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1464964828.
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Cormack, Raphael Christian. "Oedipus on the Nile : translations and adaptations of Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos in Egypt, 1900-1970." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23624.
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Between 1900 and 1970 seven different versions of Sophocles’ play Oedipus Tyrannos were performed or published in Arabic in Egypt. This thesis looks at the first 71 years’ history of this iconic Greek tragedy in Arabic and the ways it can be used to think through the cultural debates of the period. The long history of contact between Greece and Egypt and the 19th and 20th century interpretations of this history can be used to look at different models of colonial and post-colonial cultural interaction. Classicism offered Egyptian writers a constructive way of looking at their cultural identity and contemporary world – a way which takes in to account the legacies of colonialism but also engages Greek literature to create their own models of nationhood. Following the history of performance and adaptation of the play throughout the 20th century, this thesis offers close readings of the most prominent adaptations of Oedipus, particularly those of Farah Antun (whose text was used for Actor-Director George Abyad’s first version of the play in 1912), Tawfiq al-Hakim (1949), Ali Ahmed Bakathir (1949) and Ali Salem (1970). Using performance and translation theory, I show how performance of translated plays like Oedipus was a crucial but complex part of the formation of an Egyptian dramatic tradition through the dynamic interaction of diverse views of what the theatre should be, using, for instance, the role of singing in turn of the century drama. This thesis also revisits and revises misconceptions about the relationship between Islam and theatre. In addition to examining Egyptian Oedipus’ 19th and 20th century context, I also stress the contribution of performance and adaptation to readings of the original text. In particular, these versions of Oedipus ask questions about monarchical rule and democracy that form one link between this classical play and 20th century Egypt. Through its interdisciplinary approach as well as the close readings it offers, this thesis aims to make valuable contributions to the fields of Arabic Theatre Studies and Classical Reception in Colonial and Post-Colonial contexts as well as Performance and Translation Theory.
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Hunter, Evans Jasmine Louise. "David Jones and Rome : reimagining the decline of Western civilisation." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/18206.
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David Jones (1895-1974), the Anglo-Welsh, Roman Catholic, poet, artist, and essayist, believed that Western civilisation was in decline. From his formative experience as a private in the First World War to the harrowing destruction of Western and British culture that he perceived during the Second World War and in its aftermath, Jones shaped his artistic vision of modernity on the basis of a complex and dynamic concept of ancient Rome. Jones developed this vision through his poetry, paintings, inscriptions, essays, interviews and letters over a period which spanned most of his adult life. It was not founded in any form of classical education, but was fashioned from his own experiences, his extensive reading, his conversations with friends, and, most importantly, from the discourses surrounding Rome's relationship with the modern world which were prevalent in his contemporary society. This thesis offers the first sustained study of Jones's reception of Rome and brings together a wide range of published and unpublished material. It situates Jones's vision of Rome within a broad context divided into four central areas of contemporary discourse: British political rhetoric, the cyclical historical movement, the defence of cultural unity and continuity, and the Welsh nationalist movement. Exploring the deep and previously uncharted relevance of Jones's works to twentieth-century British intellectual history reveals the enduring fascination of the Roman analogy as a way to comprehend the crisis of modernity.
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Polten, Orla. "Spectres of metre : English poetry in classical measures, 1860-1930." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/278573.
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Why did so many poets attempt English verse in Ancient Greek and Latin metres during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? And what was at stake in these attempts? The most immediate importance of these questions to literary criticism is the fact that they mark one of the most striking and consistent points of contiguity between the verse-forms — and poetic theories — of poets commonly categorised as ‘Modernists’ and ‘Victorians’. This study uncovers a lineage of experimentation with classical metres connecting Algernon Charles Swinburne to Ezra Pound and H. D., in the process challenging received periodizations of English verse-history. The assumption that vers libre and metrical verse constitute alternate and incompatible paradigms prevents us from being able to perceive, in either of them, the endless performative possibilities that rhythm offers us — possibilities which, as I intend to demonstrate, underpin some of the period’s most influential experiments in verse-form. My close studies of these poetic forms raise another question: what is the ontological status of these poetic forms that pass through multiple languages and millennia? I frame my readings of English poetry in classical measures through the metaphor of the ghost because English poetry can only encounter classical metres as a kind of spectral or incomplete presence. I refer to this encounter, borrowing a term from Jacques Derrida, as ‘hauntology’: a situation of temporal, historical, and ontological disjunction that occurs when a being or entity, apparently present, is revealed to be an absent or continually-deferred (non-)origin. The hauntological character of English poems in classical measures is due not only to fundamental differences between the syntaxes and phonologies of Ancient Greek, Latin, and English, but also to the loss of knowledge concerning the traditions and conventions of metrical performance in Ancient Greek and Latin. This is why writing English poetry in classical metres generally poses a far greater challenge — both technically and conceptually — than writing English poetry in the metres of a living language: recreating classical metres in English requires reimagining the very nature of the encounter between poems and bodies, while also facing up to the quasi-magical charge that ‘the classical’ holds in the English literary imagination.
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Slaney, Helen. "Language and the body in the performance reception of Senecan tragedy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:72f9cf38-6e9c-40a1-b387-12a754e4d0ea.
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Seneca’s contribution to the development of Western European theatre and conceptions of theatricality has been underestimated in comparison to that of Greek tragedy. This thesis argues for the continuous importance of Senecan drama in theatrical theory and practice from the sixteenth century until the present day. It examines significant instances of Seneca in performance, and shows how these draw on particular aspects of Seneca’s style and dramaturgical technique to coalesce into a sub-genre of tragedy termed here ‘hypertragedy’ or the ‘senecan aesthetic’. The underlying premise of this representational mode is that verbal (vocal) performance is a physical act and induces physical responses. This entails the consequential inference that Senecan theatre is not mimetic – that is, based on an isomorphic identification of character with performer – but rather affective; like oratory, it functions through direct, quasi-musical manipulation of the auditor’s senses. The goal of this theatrical form is to articulate extreme states of mind or experiences which cannot be conveyed via conventional mimetic means: pain, frenzy, dissolution of the self. In tracing the theories of tragedy which comprise a narrative contrapuntal to the reception of Seneca onstage, it is possible to identify the factors which have successively constructed, promoted, suppressed, reviled and finally reinstated the senecan aesthetic as philhellenism’s other.
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Norman, William Hereward. "The classical Barbarian in the Íslendingasögur." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/277652.
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The Íslendingasögur, written in Iceland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, primarily describe the lives of Icelanders during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Many of these lives involve encounters with foreign peoples, both abroad and in Iceland, who are portrayed according to stereotypes which vary depending on the origins of those people. Notably, inhabitants of the places identified in the sagas as Írland, Skotland and Vínland are portrayed as being less civilized than the Icelanders themselves. This thesis explores the ways in which the Íslendingasögur emphasize this relative barbarity through descriptions of diet, material culture, style of warfare, and character. These characteristics are discussed in relation to parallel descriptions of Icelandic characters and lifestyle within the Íslendingasögur, and also in the context of a tradition in contemporary European literature which portrayed the Icelanders themselves as barbaric. Innovatively, comparisons are made with descriptions of barbarians in classical Roman texts, primarily Sallust, but also Caesar and Tacitus. Taking into account the availability and significance of classical learning in medieval Iceland, the comparison with Roman texts yields striking similarities between Roman and Icelandic ideas about barbarians. It is argued that the depiction of foreigners in the Íslendingasögur is almost identical to that of ancient Roman authors, and that the medieval Icelanders had both means and motive to use Roman ideas for inspiration in their own portrayal of the world. Ultimately it is argued that when the medieval Icelanders contemplated the peoples their Viking Age ancestors encountered around the world, they drew on classical ideas of the barbarian to complement the mix of oral tradition, literary inspiration and contemporary circumstance that otherwise form the Íslendingasögur.
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Sheldrake, Cara Elanor. "The history of Belerion : an investigation into the discussions of Greeks and Romans in Cornwall." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/8426.
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"Who controls the past [...] controls the future: who controls the present controls the past". In the first century BCE Diodorus of Sicily described a corner of the British Isles he called Belerion and drew attention to the ingenious way the inhabitants extracted tin and the civilised manner they had acquired through trading that metal. In 2012 a tourist may stay in a bed and breakfast near Penzance or buy books from a shop named after that promontory. However, during the nineteenth century a debate amongst historians arose as to the meaning of Diodorus' Greek text, its relationship to other classical texts and the status of Cornwall in antiquity. The discussion involved at least ten treatments specifically of the topic in Cornwall alone and was incorporated into a variety of other narratives. The debate offers an unusual insight into the role of classical texts in the description and understanding of local identity. This thesis looks at passages from the classical world that have been linked to Cornwall and which often have very little academic scholarship relating to them, and examines how they have been interpreted by Cornish historians. It will show how, despite the inconclusiveness of the ancient material, a connection between Cornwall and Greek and Roman traders has been constructed by Cornish writers, and why they were interested in doing so. This thesis suggests that the political and social contexts of local historiographers has actively shaped the interpretations of the texts often assigning a meaning to classical texts that allows a narrative of independence, cultural sophistication and unbroken mining innovation to be constructed concerning Cornwall. As such this thesis will form part of a rapidly expanding inter-disciplinary interest in our understanding of responses to the Classics and to our conception of the formation of regional historical narrative.
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Marsden, James. "Ancient history in British universities and public life, 1715-1810." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:27429822-4a59-4608-ad69-4e6b1c9c4570.
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Over the eighteenth century, ancient history was increasingly read in English, appearing in new forms and interpretations. This reflected the development of history in universities as a subject not merely read, but taught. This teaching took on many forms: serving as a predecessor to other studies, building a knowledge base of case studies for 'higher' subjects, or (increasingly) an independent subject. What ancient history was taught, how was it taught, why was it taught, and what did students go on to use it for? Ancient history as an independent subject had a limited role in the curriculum despite the foundation of Chairs of History in most universities. When it was taught as such, the focus was on explaining modern institutions via ancient comparisons; on the training of statesmen by classical examples; or, more rarely, on demonstrating a particular conception of social development. These uses of history could be seen across both national and subject boundaries. Whilst differences between universities are evident, evidence in the teaching of history suggests the absolute dichotomy between the English and Scottish systems has been overstated. The interesting case of Trinity College Dublin suggests common features across Britain in how 'liberal education' was conceived of and how history fit into it. The practical application of ancient history to the education of statesmen may be seen in the variety of ways it was used in political discourse. This is explored mainly in Parliament, the ultimate destination of the "statesmen" in whose training history was supposed to play a large part, via debates over questions of empire and imperial rights in the second half of the eighteenth century. Superior knowledge of ancient history constituted a rhetorical claim to the twin statuses of gentleman, being classically-educated, and statesman - showing understanding of historical context and precedent.
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Todd, Antony. "Auteurism and the reception of David Lynch : reading the author in post-classical American art cinema." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.416901.
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Pugh, Beverley Jane. "Jasper Heywood's translation of Seneca's Thyestes : with particular reference to the latter's sixteenth and seventeenth-century reception and the themes of tyranny, kingship and revenge." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1997. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4199/.
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The thesis offers a critical analysis of the transmission of Seneca's Thyestes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Volume 1, the 1584 Gryphius edition of Seneca's Thyestes; the 1560 edition of Heywood's translation of the play and the 1674 edition of Wright's translation and burlesque version have been transcribed. This is the first time that these texts have been presented together for discussion. The commentary (Volume II) examines a broad range of dramatic material including Neo- Latin plays such as Goldingham's Herodes (1570/80); Gwinne's Nero (1603); Snelling's Thibaldus (1640) and the anonymous Stoicus Vapulans (1648). Prose works considered include the Latin lexicas and grammars of Lilly and Whitinton; philosophical treatises such as Reynolds A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the soule of Man (1640); and religious works such as Hooper on the Ten Commandments (1560). It presents hitherto unpublished material- MS Sloane 1041; and material that has previously received little attention- the Hendrik Goltzius' engraving of Melpomene (1592) and the Restoration Mock-Thyestes in Burlesque. Research material was consulted at the British Library; BL Department of Manuscripts; BL Print Room; University of Warwick Library; University of Birmingham Library; Senate House Library, University of London; The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; The Warburg Institute and The Institute of Classical Studies.
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Phillips, Tom. "Pindar's library : performance poetry and material texts." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fb9b6bcc-0a2e-486e-94c4-f74a30d8cae8.
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Nicolai, Katherine Cecilia. "'Scottish Cato'? : a re-examination of Adam Ferguson's engagement with classical antiquity." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8248.
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Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) was one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, an influential eighteenth-century moral and political philosopher, as well as a professor of ethics at the University of Edinburgh from 1764 to 1785. There has been a wealth of scholarship on Ferguson in which central themes include his role as a political theorist, sociologist, moral philosopher, and as an Enlightenment thinker. One of the most frequent topics addressed by scholars is his relationship to ancient philosophy, particularly Stoicism. The ease with which scholars identify Ferguson as a Stoic, however, is problematic because of the significant differences between Ferguson‟s ideas and those of the „schools‟ of classical antiquity, especially Stoicism. Some scholars interpret Ferguson‟s philosophy as a derivative, unsystematic „patchwork‟ because he drew on various ancient sources, but, it is argued, did not adhere to any particular system. The aim of my thesis is to suggest an alternative interpretation of Ferguson‟s relationship to ancient philosophy, particularly to Stoicism, by placing Ferguson in the context of the intellectual history of the eighteenth century. The first section of this thesis is an examination of Ferguson‟s response to the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, modern eclecticism and the experimental method to demonstrate how Ferguson‟s approach to and engagement with ancient philosophy is informed by these intellectual contexts. The second section is a close analysis of the role that ancient schools play in his discussion of the history of philosophy as well as the didactic purpose found in his lectures and published works thereby determining the function of ancient thought in his philosophy. The third section is a re-examination of Ferguson‟s concept of Stoicism and his engagement with Stoic ethics in his moral philosophy re-interpreting his relationship to the ancient school. With a combination of a new understanding of Ferguson‟s methodology and new assessment of his engagement with ancient thought, a new interpretation of Ferguson‟s moral philosophy demonstrates his unique contribution to eighteenth-century thought.
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Kourniakti, Jessica. "The classical asset : receptions of antiquity under the dictatorship of 21 April in Greece (1967-73)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2018. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9309b07f-7f31-44de-986a-c76226b7eb82.
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This thesis stakes out to reframe the debates surrounding a widely criticised chapter in the cultural history of modern Greece: the receptions of the classical past under the Dictatorship of 21 April (also known as 'the dictatorship of the Colonels') during the period 1967 to 1973. Informed by the hermeneutics of classical reception studies, I aim to provide a new perspective on the dictatorship, one that focuses on the contemporaneity of its discursive and visual renderings of antiquity, but which departs from a conceptual framework that is dictated by the master narrative of the Cold War (by the polarisations between Right and Left). The project converges on the ideological discourses, educational policies and the mass spectacles of the Colonels, each of which has been designated as fraught with 'ancestoritis' or 'pseudoclassicism' in the literature. In breaking away from value judgments and notions of misappropriation, it is my intention that the project functions as an exercise in a critical levelling with the dictatorship's multifold classicisms. Concomitantly, I propose that in order to better understand the politics of reception of the Aprilians, which have often seemed impenetrable, it is necessary to branch out into more cross-disciplinary methods of enquiry than those that have been employed in the past. My own approach borrows analytical tools from theories of counter-intelligence, cultural studies, political theory, educational sociology and performance studies. With this exploratory patchwork, the present study hopes to contribute toward opening up a field on which it is possible to examine the dictatorship on its own terms, while taking into account the composite articulations of antiquity with power, upward social mobility, economic development, and entertainment and leisure culture in 1960s Greece.
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Griffin, Michael J. "The reception of the Categories of Aristotle, c. 80 BC to AD 220." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2009. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f4149a7e-2ad0-4d7b-b428-2ba55acf22d3.
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This thesis focuses on the ancient reception of the Categories of Aristotle, a work which served continuously, from late antiquity into the early modern period (Frede 1987), as the student’s introduction to philosophy. There had previously been no comprehensive study of the reception of the Categories during the age of the first philosophical commentaries (c. 80 BC to AD 220). In this study, I have collected, assigned, and analyzed the relevant fragments of commentary belonging to this period, including some that were previously undocumented or inexplicit in the source texts, and sought to establish and characterize the influence of the early commentators’ activity on the subsequent Peripatetic tradition. In particular, I trace the early evolution of criticism and defense of the text through competing accounts of its aim (skopos), which would ultimately lead Stoic and Platonic philosophers to a partial acceptance of the Categories and frame its role in the later Neo-Platonic curriculum.
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Vedelago, Angelica. "The Reception of Sophocles'"Antigone" in Early Modern English Drama." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3425407.
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This thesis analyses the reception of Sophocles’ Antigone in early modern English drama in the form of translation and adaptation. It focusses on the only two extant texts that can be defined as a translation or an adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone by English authors in the early modern period: "Sophoclis Antigone" (1581), a Latin translation by Thomas Watson, and "The Tragedy of Antigone, The Theban Princesse" (1631), an English adaptation by Thomas May. Opting for the historicist strand within reception studies, I argue that these two English Antigones intersect at a crossroads of contexts – theoretical, cultural, literary, and political. Only within these perspectives can these plays be fully understood and their value reassessed. Combining Sophocles’ tragedy both with other classical sources and contemporary models, the two texts challenge the traditional understanding of the early modern compositional approaches of "translation" and "adaptation". Moreover, by potentially alluding to contemporary events, Watson’s and May’s versions of Antigone partly align with, partly destabilize modern interpretations of the Sophoclean original. As direct and declared engagements with the Sophoclean play, Watson’s and May’s "Antigones" are ideal case studies for the flexible conception of the practices of translation and adaptation and for the close relationship between politics and drama in the early modern period.
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Kampakoglou, Alexandros. "Studies in the reception of Pindar in Hellenistic poetry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f97a0403-6f42-41c5-bff2-f7b3991fc48b.
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This thesis examines the reception of Pindar in Hellenistic poetry. More specifically it examines texts of three major Hellenistic poets: Theocritus of Syracuse, Callimachus of Cyrene and Posidippus of Pella. The texts discussed have been selected on the basis of two principles: (i) genre and (ii) subject matter. They include texts that inscribe themselves in the tradition of encomiastic, and more specifically, Pindaric poetry either through the generic discourse which they partake in or through the employment of myths that Pindar had used in his own odes. Throughout the thesis it is argued that the connections with Pindaric passages are carried out on the basis of ‘allusions’ which are picked up by the readers. This term is employed to describe one of the ways in which intertextuality functions. Following the model of Conte and Barchiesi, the discussion insists on the distinction between allusions to specific Pindaric passages and allusions to epinician generic motifs that can best be illustrated through Pindaric passages. The aim of the discussion for each case of textual correspondence suggested is to describe the means whereby this connection is suggested to the reader and to propose a ‘meaning’ for it. In this sense, equal emphasis is given to the detailed examination of all texts that partake in the intertextual connection suggested, i.e. to Pindaric and Hellenistic alike.
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Delbar, David Carter. "Myths on the Move: A Critical Pluralist Approach to the Study of Classical Mythology in Post-Classical Works." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2019. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7492.
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The Classical Tradition, now more commonly known as Classical Reception, is a growing sub-discipline in Classics which seeks to trace the influence of Greco-Roman culture in post-classical works. While scholars have already done much to analyze specific texts, and many of these analyses are theoretically complex, there has yet to be a review of the theories these scholars employ. The purpose of this study is to provide researchers with a theoretical tool kit which allows them greater scope and nuance when analyzing usages of classical mythology. It examines five different approaches scholars have used: adaptation, allusion, intertextuality, reception, and typology. Each theory is followed by an example from Spanish literature or film: Apollo and Daphne in Calderón's El laurel de Apolo, Orpheus in Unamuno's Niebla, Dionysus in Unamuno's San Manuel Bueno, mártir, Persephone in del Torro's El laberinto del fauno, and the werewolf in Naschy's Waldemar Daninsky films. This thesis argues that a critical pluralist approach best captures the nuance and variety of usages of classical mythology. This allows for both objective and subjective readings of texts as well as explicit and implicit connections to classical mythology.
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Keeline, Thomas John. "A Rhetorical Figure: Cicero in the Early Empire." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11467.
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My dissertation investigates the reception of Cicero in the early Roman Empire, focusing on the first 250 years after his death. I show that this reception is primarily constructed by the ancient rhetorical schoolroom, where young Romans first encountered Cicero, reading his speeches and writing Ciceronian declamations. Here they were exposed to a particular version of the man, with emphases often selected for political purposes. When they grew up, that schoolroom image of Cicero continued to permeate their thought and writing. My study unpacks this complex process and lays bare the early Empire's relationship with one of its most significant late Republican predecessors.The Classics
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van, Dyk Gerrit. "Translation as Katabasis and Nekyia in Seamus Heaney's "The Riverbank Field"." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2013. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3473.
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Translation has been at the heart of Seamus Heaney's career. In his poem, "The Riverbank Field," from his latest collection, Human Chain, Heaney engages in metatranslation, "Ask me to translate what Loeb gives as / 'In a retired vale...a sequestered grove' / And I'll confound the Lethe in Moyola." Curiously, with a broad spectrum of classical works at his disposal, the poet chooses a particular moment in Virgil's Aeneid as an image for translation. What is it about this conversation between Aeneas and his dead father, Anchises, at the banks of the Lethe which makes it uniquely fitting for Heaney to explore translation? In order to fully understand Heaney's decision to translate this scene from Aeneid 6, it must be clear how Heaney perceives the classical tropes of katabasis (descent into the underworld) and nekyia (communion with the dead). Due to the particularly violent and destructive history of the 20th century from the World Wars to the Holocaust, contemporary poets tend to portray katabasis and nekyia in their works as tragic (See Falconer's Hell in Contemporary Literature). Heaney subverts this view of a tragic descent and communion with the dead in his poetry, instead opting for a journey through Hell which is more optimistic and efficacious. Heaney's rejection of the contemporary tragic katabasis and nekyia allows these classical tropes to become a metaphor for translation. I argue Heaney demonstrates how he views translation and the role of the translator through this metatranslational instance in "The Riverbank Field." For Heaney, not only can a poet descend to the underworld where spirits of the literary dead wait for translation into a new medium, but the translator actually can succeed in bringing an ancient author to a modern readership.
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Grove, Jennifer Ellen. "The collection and reception of sexual antiquities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15064.
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Sexually themed objects from ancient Greece and Rome have been present in debates about our relationship with the past and with sexuality since they were first brought to modern attention in large numbers in the Enlightenment period. However, modern engagement with this type of material has very often been characterised as problematic. This thesis pushes beyond the story of reactionary censorship of ancient depictions of sex to demonstrate how these images were meaningfully engaged with across intellectual life in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain and America. It makes a significant and timely contribution to our existing knowledge of a key historical period for the development of the modern understanding of sexuality and cultural representations of it, and the central role that antiquity played in negotiating this fundamental aspect of modernity. Crucially, this work demonstrates how sexual antiquities functioned as symbols of pre-Christian sexual, social and political mores, with which to think through, and to challenge, contemporary cultural constructions around sexuality, religion, gender roles and the development of culture itself. It presents evidence of the widespread and prolific acquisition of sexually themed artefacts throughout private and institutional collecting culture. This deliberate seeking out of ancient images of sex is shown to have been motivated by debates on the universal human connection between sex and religion, as part of wider constructions of notions such as ‘culture’ and ‘primitivism’, with Classical material maintaining a central position in these ideas, despite research into increasingly diverse cultures, past and present. The purposeful engagement with sexual imagery from antiquity is also revealed as having acted as a valuable new source of knowledge about ancient sexual life between men which gave new impetus to the negotiation, defence, celebration and promotion of homoerotic desire in contemporary turn of the twentieth century, Western society.
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Platt, Mary Hartley. "Epic reduction : receptions of Homer and Virgil in modern American poetry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9d1045f5-3134-432b-8654-868c3ef9b7de.
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The aim of this project is to account for the widespread reception of the epics of Homer and Virgil by American poets of the twentieth century. Since 1914, an unprecedented number of new poems interpreting the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid have appeared in the United States. The vast majority of these modern versions are short, combining epic and lyric impulses in a dialectical form of genre that is shaped, I propose, by two cultural movements of the twentieth century: Modernism, and American humanism. Modernist poetics created a focus on the fragmentary and imagistic aspects of Homer and Virgil; and humanist philosophy sparked a unique trend of undergraduate literature survey courses in American colleges and universities, in which for the first time, in the mid-twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of students were exposed to the epics in translation, and with minimal historical contextualisation, prompting a clear opportunity for personal appropriation on a broad scale. These main matrices for the reception of epic in the United States in the twentieth century are set out in the introduction and first chapter of this thesis. In the five remaining chapters, I have identified secondary threads of historical influence, scrutinised alongside poems that developed in that context, including the rise of Freudian and related psychologies; the experience of modern warfare; American national politics; first- and second-wave feminism; and anxiety surrounding poetic belatedness. Although modern American versions of epic have been recognised in recent scholarship on the reception of Classics in twentieth-century poetry in English, no comprehensive account of the extent of the phenomenon has yet been attempted. The foundation of my arguments is a catalogue of almost 400 poems referring to Homer and Virgil, written by over 175 different American poets from 1914 to the present. Using a comparative methodology (after T. Ziolkowski, Virgil and the Moderns, 1993), and models of reception from German and English reception theory (including C. Martindale, Redeeming the Text, 1993), the thesis contributes to the areas of classical reception studies and American literary history, and provides a starting point for considering future steps in the evolution of the epic genre.
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Lazarus, Micha David Swade. "Aristotle's Poetics in Renaissance England." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fea8e0e3-df54-4b57-b45d-0b46acd06530.
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This thesis brings to light evidence for the circulation and first-hand reception of Aristotle's Poetics in sixteenth-century England. Though the Poetics upended literary thinking on the Continent in the period, it has long been considered either unavailable in England, linguistically inaccessible to the Greekless English, or thoroughly mediated for English readers by Italian criticism. This thesis revisits the evidentiary basis for each of these claims in turn. A survey of surviving English booklists and library catalogues, set against the work's comprehensive sixteenth-century print-history, demonstrates that the Poetics was owned by and readily accessible to interested readers; two appendices list verifiable and probable owners of the Poetics respectively. Detailed philological analysis of passages from Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poesie proves that he translated directly from the Greek; his and his contemporaries' reading methods indicate the text circulated bilingually as standard. Nor was Sidney’s polyglot access unusual in literary circles: re-examination of the history of Greek education in sixteenth-century England indicates that Greek literacy was higher and more widespread than traditional histories of scholarship have allowed. On the question of mediation, a critical historiography makes clear that the inherited assumption of English reliance on Italian intermediaries for classical criticism has drifted far from the primary evidence. Under these reconstituted historical conditions, some of the outstanding episodes in the sixteenth-century English reception of the Poetics from John Cheke and Roger Ascham in the 1540s to Sidney and John Harington in the 1580s and 1590s are reconsidered as articulate evidence of reading, thinking about, and responding to Aristotle's defining contribution to Renaissance literary thought.
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Nettelbladt, Anders. "Reception av Helena Munktells kompositioner : Konserter och musikrecensioner 1885-1921." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för kultur och estetik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-190539.
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In this essay the reception of Helena Munktell’s 1885 1921 compositions are mapped andanalysed. The term reception is used to express to what extent Munktell’s compositions wereperformed, and also how they were received in newspaper reviews. The reception is studiedholistically. This means that all identifiable concerts and all accessible newspaper reviews havebeen taken into consideration, and that the mapping and analysis aims to demonstrate how thereception differs between genres and countries, as wel l as how it changes over time.Helena Munktell (1852 1919) was a Swedish composer, pianist, and singer. Hercatalogue is concise, but she composed music in several different genres. In 1915 she wasinducted into The Royal Swedish Academy of Music Munktell was active in both Sweden andFrance, and her work shows traces of Swedish folk music as well as French style elements. Shestudied composition with a number of teacher s, both in Stockholm and Paris. Her mostinfluential teacher was Vincent d’Indy. Through him directly, and César Franck indirectly, hercompositions came to include neo French mannerisms such as cyclic form, colourful chordchanges, and downplaying the imp ortance of melody in favour of harmonic progression.The analysis was done in four stages. In the first stage facts were collected. Thebulk of the source material was gathered from a scrapbook with reviews from Munktell ’sposthumous collections, and from the national database of Swedish newspapers Svenskadagstidningar In the second stage a calendar of all identifiable concerts was comprised. In thethird stage an account of all compositions, concerts, and reviews for each respective genre wascreated. In the fourth stage the results were analysed from a historical perspective and fromPierre Bourdieu’s theory on capital and fieldApproximately 140 concerts have been identified. The vocal genres are dominantmore than half of the performances concern works for vocal soloists. The opera I Firenze wasperformed in Stockholm 13 times. This accomplishment can be attributed to the fact thatMunktell had an abundance of what Bourdieu call s cultural and social capital. The opera andthe vocal performances were almost exclusively well reviewed. Munktell’s compositions werealso successful in France. She became a member of the prestigious organisation SociétéNationale de Musique where several of her compositions were performed. Three of her fourorchestral works were premiered in France, as was her violin sonata. Munktell’s success inFrance can be explained partly by her compositions having a strong French influence, and thefact that cultural capital is highly valued in France. Dalsvit was the only orchestral work thatwas performed in Sweden during her lifetime and it received very mixed reviews. The violinsonata is the instrumental composition that w as performed the most. It received mixed reviewsin the daily newspapers at the time of its first performance in Stockholm in 1905, butconsiderably more positive appraisal after the memorial concert at The Royal Swedish Operain 1921. This can be explained by the societal interest and appreciation of German musicaldominance giving way to F rench musical styles in a different way in 1921.The account from Swedish Musical Heritage Anders Edling’s biography onHelena Munktell, saying that all contemporary re views of Munktell as a composer were positiveis incorrect; they were mixed, varying between genres, and changing over time.A similar analysis could be carried out concerning other composers works. Suchan analysis would make it possible to compare the reception between two or more composers’work, but also how their different prerequisites may have influenced their reception.I uppsatsen kartläggs och analyseras receptionen av Helena Munktells kompositioner under åren 1885–1921. Med reception avses dels i vilken utsträckning Munktells kompositioner blev framförda, dels hur de blev mottagna i tidningsrecensioner. Receptionen utforskas ur ett helhetsperspektiv. Det betyder att alla identifierbara konserter och alla tillgängliga recensioner omfattas och att kartläggningen och analysen syftar till att åskådliggöra hur receptionen skiljer sig åt mellan genrer och mellan länder liksom hur den förändras med tiden. Helena Munktell (1852–1919) var en svensk tonsättare, pianist och sångerska. Hennes verkförteckning är kort men hon komponerade i ett flertal genrer. År 1915 blev hon invald som tonsättare i Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien. Munktell var verksam i både Sverige och Frankrike och i hennes verk finns såväl svenska folkmusikinfluenser som franska stilelement. Hon tog lektioner i komposition för ett flertal lärare, både i Stockholm och Paris. Den lärare som påverkade henne mest var Vincent d’Indy. Genom honom och därmed indirekt genom César Franck kom hennes kompositioner att inrymma stildrag från den nyfranska skolan: cyklisk form, färgskapande ackordväxlingar och nedtoning av melodins betydelse till förmån för harmonisk progression. Undersökningen har genomförts i fyra steg. I första steget samlades fakta in. Huvud-sakligt källmaterial var en klippbok med recensioner från Munktells efterlämnade samlingar samt recensioner från databasen Svenska dagstidningar. I andra steget togs en kalender fram omfattande alla identifierade konserter. I tredje steget utarbetades en redogörelse över kompositioner, konserter och recensioner för respektive genre. I fjärde steget analyserades resultatet ur ett historiskt perspektiv och utifrån Pierre Bourdieus teorier om kapital och fält. Cirka 140 konserter har identifierats. De vokala genrerna dominerar och över hälften av konserterna avser solosång. Operan I Firenze framfördes i Stockholm 13 gånger. Denna bedrift kan till viss del förklaras med att Munktell hade god tillgång till det Bourdieu kallar kulturellt och socialt kapital. Operan och solosångerna fick nästan uteslutande goda omdömen i recensionerna. Munktells kompositioner rönte stora framgångar i Frankrike. Hon blev medlem i den prestigefyllda föreningen Société Nationale de Musique där flera av hennes kompositioner framfördes. Tre av hennes fyra orkesterverk uruppfördes i Frankrike, så också hennes violinsonat. Munktells framgångar i Frankrike kan förklaras dels med att hon till stor del komponerade i fransk stil, dels med att kulturellt kapital värderas mycket högt i Frankrike. Dalsvit var det enda orkesterverk som framfördes i Sverige under hennes levnad och den renderade starkt skiftande omdömen. Munktells violinsonat är den instrumentala komposition som framfördes mest. Sonaten fick ett blandat bemötande i dagspressen efter framförandet i Stockholm 1905 men betydligt positivare omdömen efter minneskonserten på Kungliga Operan 1921. Detta kan förklaras med att den tyska musikstilens dominans hade mattats av och att de franska stildragen uppskattades på ett annat sätt 1921. Uppgiften i Anders Edlings biografi över Helena Munktell i Levande musikarv om att alla samtidens omdömen om Munktell som tonsättare var positiva stämmer inte; de var skiftande, skiljde sig åt mellan genrer och förändrades med tiden. En motsvarande undersökning skulle kunna genomföras rörande andra tonsättares verk. En sådan studie skulle göra det möjligt att jämföra receptionen av tonsättarnas verk och också jämföra vilken betydelse tonsättarnas olika förutsättningar kan ha haft för receptionen.
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Toscano, Dennis. "Carthago Indiarum Obsessa, Sed Non Expugnata: Praefatio, Editio Critica, Commentarius, Paraphrasis Versuum Quibus Celebratur Victoria Hispanorum a Britannis Anno 1741 Reportata." UKnowledge, 2016. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/mcllc_etds/5.
Full textAbstract:
Opus cui titulus est "Carthago Indiarum obsessa sed non expugnata" est carmen divulgatum sine nomine auctoris saeculo duodevicesimo ad celebrandam vic- toriam quam Hispani a Britannis Carthagenae Indiarum anno 1741 in bello auris illius Ienkins (vulgo, the War of Jenkins’ Ear) reportaverunt. In hac thesi tractantur modo satis compendiario res gestae huius proelii quo melius lectores carmen ipsum possint intellegere. Necnon hic inveniuntur ea quae spectant ad huius opusculi genus, indolem et momentum litterarium. Postremo, praebetur hic editio critica, paraphra- sis Latina, commentarius in hoc carmen scriptus. Ex hoc carmine potest conspici quomodo litterarum Latinarum patrimonium pertineat ad omnes aetates, ad omnes gentes, ad omnes patrias.
The work Carthago Indiarum obsessa, sed non expugnata ("Cartagena de Indias, Assailed but not Captured") is an eighteenth century anonymous poem that celebrates the Spanish victory over the English at Cartagena de Indias during the War of Jenkins’ Ear in 1741. This thesis presents a summary of the battle in order to contextualize the significance of the poem. It further presents a literary analysis of the poem’s genre, characteristics, and literary importance, as well as a critical edi-tion, a paraphrase in Latin prose, and a commentary. From analyzing this poem, one can see some ways in which the Latin literary patrimony brought from the ancients pertains to all ages, peoples, and nations.
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Piantanida, Cecilia. "Classical lyricism in Italian and North American 20th-century poetry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4422c01a-ba88-4fe0-a21f-4804e4c610ce.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis defines ‘classical lyricism’ as any mode of appropriation of Greek and Latin monodic lyric whereby a poet may develop a wider discourse on poetry. Assuming classical lyricism as an internal category of enquiry, my thesis investigates the presence of Sappho and Catullus as lyric archetypes in Italian and North American poetry of the 20th century. The analysis concentrates on translations and appropriations of Sappho and Catullus in four case studies: Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912) and Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968) in Italy; Ezra Pound (1885-1972) and Anne Carson (b. 1950) in North America. I first trace the poetic reception of Sappho and Catullus in the oeuvres of the four authors separately. I define and evaluate the role of the respective appropriations within each author’s work and poetics. I then contextualise the four case studies within the Italian and North American literary histories. Finally, through the new outlook afforded by the comparative angle of this thesis, I uncover some of the hidden threads connecting the different types of classical lyricism transnationally. The thesis shows that the course of classical lyricism takes two opposite aesthetic directions in Italy and in North America. Moreover, despite the two aesthetic trajectories diverging, I demonstrate that the four poets’ appropriations of Sappho and Catullus share certain topical characteristics. Three out of four types of classical lyricism are defined by a preference for Sappho’s and Catullus’ lyrics which deal with marriage rituals and defloration, patterns of death and rebirth, and solar myths. They stand out as the epiphenomena of the poets’ interest in the anthropological foundations of the lyric, which is grounded in a philosophical function associated with poetry as a quest for knowledge. I therefore ultimately propose that ‘classical lyricism’ may be considered as an independent historical and interpretative category of the classical legacy.
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Siedina, Giovanna. "The Reception of Horace in the Courses of Poetics at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy: 17th-First Half of the 18th Century." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13065007.
Full textAbstract:
For the first time, the reception of the poetic legacy of the Latin poet Horace (65 B.C.-8 B.C.) in the poetics courses taught at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy (17th-first half of the 18th century) has become the subject of a wide-ranging research project presented in this dissertation. Quotations from Horace and references to his oeuvre have been divided according to the function they perform in the poetics manuals, the aim of which was to teach pupils how to compose Latin poetry. Three main aspects have been identified: the first consists of theoretical recommendations useful to the would-be poets, which are taken mainly from Horace's Ars poetica. The second aspect is the use of Horace's poetry as a model of word usage, tropes, rhetorical figures, and metrical schemes. Finally, the last important aspect of the reception of Horace is how his works could be imitated and his words or dicta borrowed in the composition of poetry, in which students were expected to exercise as part of the poetics course.
The research draws the conclusion that Horace's legacy was of paramount importance in the manuals analyzed: on the one hand the Mohylanian poetics teachers' tendency (after Renaissance literary theorists and critics) to consider poetry within rhetorical categories rendered Horace's Ars Poetica extremely congenial to them. On the other, Horace's ideas were extrapolated from their original context and at times modified to serve a moralistic and "utilitarian" conception of poetry, which considered the latter as an instrumental science that served the ends of moral philosophy. With its metrical virtuosity and brilliant verbal craftsmanship, Horace's poetry provided an excellent model for the introduction of Christian content.
The analysis of the way pagan authors (Horace first and foremost) were elaborated in a Christian key in the poetry composed by Mohylanian teachers and pupils indicates that education (and with it the assimilation of the Classics) at the KMA was not extraneous to the integration of ancient learning in Christian thinking as it took place in the different confessional schools of contemporary Western Europe.Slavic Languages and Literatures
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Doyle, Alice. ""The Essence of Greekness": The Parthenon Marbles and the Construction of Cultural Identity." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1209.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the relationship between the Classical Greek legacy and today’s world by examining the past two hundred years of controversy surrounding Lord Elgin’s removal of the Parthenon Marbles from Athens. Since the Marbles were purchased by the British Museum in 1816, they have become symbols of democratic values and Greek cultural identity. By considering how the Parthenon Marbles are talked about by different people over the years, from art connoisseurs and Romantic poets of the early 19th century to nationalist political activists of the late 20th century, this thesis demonstrates that the fight for the Marbles’ return to Greece is about more than just the sculptures themselves. It is about national heritage and cultural identity.
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Kipker, Sarah. "Medea: översättningar och omtolkningar : En receptionsstudie av Euripides drama mellan 1860 och 2016." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-323790.
Full textAbstract:
Medea is, even though a mythological woman from ancient Greece, very popular today and her story feels modern, which many recent adaptations clearly prove. How can this ancient material be so applicable and thought-provoking to discuss today? This study shows how different translators and authors have interpreted and re-imagined Medea to make her feel relevant to their contemporary societies. Focus is put on Medea’s roles as a woman and a foreigner, because these aspects are especially relevant today. The following research compares three Swedish translations of Euripides Medea from 1860, 1931 and 2012 with each other and analyses three modern adaptations (a movie by Lars von Trier, a novel by Christa Wolf and a play by Viktor Tjerneld) to reveal similarities and differences in the reception of the ancient material. This is achieved by a close reading and analysis of the source material with a theoretical approach that focusses on classical reception and drama theory. The results show that the different translations only differ in nuanced details because all of them try to stay as true as possible to the ancient Greek original. Only the prefaces and character lists written by the translators reveal significant differences in the values that they express and that are signs of their contemporary societies. The modern adaptations offer more possibilities for changing the original depending on which aspects are important during the time of publication. The results show that Medea’s role as an independent woman is important today, but also that her role as a foreigner becomes even more significant as the debates about refugees are getting more evident in our society.
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Currie, Arabella. "Those swans, remember : Graeco-Celtic relations in the work of J.M. Synge." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:808752d3-3ee9-4ba3-97ce-9c36c9b7fbb7.
Full textAbstract:
The Celts, as a distinct and culturally-unified people, are a social construction as much as an historical reality, endowing Celtic antiquity with a certain availability of outline, and a certain scope. When the Celtic world began to be scrutinised in the eighteenth century, its borders could, therefore, be filled with concepts drawn from other antiquities. Classical antiquity, and particularly its Greek variety, was a vital coordinate in this navigation of the past. This thesis explores the history of these Graeco-Celtic negotiations. Using Reinhart Koselleck's theory of asymmetric counterconcepts, it calculates the precise angles of the relation between Greek and Celt in antiquarianism, comparative mythology and folklore, Classics and Celtic Studies, from the early eighteenth and to the late nineteenth centuries. The thesis then puts forward one particular writer as an original and unique interpreter of the tradition of Graeco-Celtic relations, the Irish playwright J.M. Synge. Through archival research, it demonstrates quite how deeply Synge was immersed in this scholarly tradition; in the last years of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth, he followed a deliberate path of reading in antiquarianism, Classics, Celtic Studies, comparative linguistics, mythology and folklore. It then argues that Synge transformed such Graeco-Celtic scholarship into a formidable authorial strategy, in his prose account of his travels on the Aran Islands and his famous, controversial plays. By identifying this strategy, it reveals how Synge's work exploits the continued presence and power of antiquity. Most studies of the reception of Greek antiquity in Irish literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries assume a straightforward, inherent connection between Ireland and Greece. This thesis complicates that connection by identifying the powerful history of Graeco-Celtic relations and, particularly, its transformation at the hands of J.M. Synge. This will allow for scrutiny of what actually happens at the crux between Greece and Ireland in literary texts.
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O'Dwyer, Maeve Anne. "From Batoni's brush to Canova's chisel : painted and sculpted portraiture at Rome, 1740-1830." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23623.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the city of Rome as a primary context of British sociability and portrait identity during the period from 1740 to 1830. Part I considers the work of the portrait painter Pompeo Batoni. It examines the pictorial record of grand tourist sociability at Rome in the 1750s, questioning the complex articulation of nationality among British visitors, and the introduction of overt references to antiquity in the portraiture of Pompeo Batoni. It subsequently interrogates Batoni's use of the partially nude Vatican Ariadne sculpture in five portraits of male grand tourists, dating from Charles John Crowle in 1762, to Thomas William Coke in 1774. Part II of this thesis considers the realities of viewing the sculpted body at Rome, recreating the studios of sculptors Christopher Hewetson and Antonio Canova. It postis the studio space as a locus of sociability for British visitors to Rome, drawing on the feminine gaze in the form of the early nineteenth-century writings of Charlotte Eaton and Lady Murray. The final chapter moves from the focus on British sitters to examine sculpture by Antonio Canova, framing it within a wider discourse of masculinity and propriety. Thte reception of Canova's nude portrait sculpture of Napoleon Bonaparte and Pauline Borghese is considered as indicative of cultural anxieties stemming from new conceptions of gender.