Colloquium, Department of Classical Studies
Thursday, September 24, 2020, 4:30 pm (EST)
When classical scholars talk about Roman literature, they typically mean literature in Latin or Greek. Many other languages also thrived in the Roman Empire including Aramaic, Demotic, and Hebrew. How should we study these literatures? What kind of frame for multilingual literary study is provided by the Roman Empire? This paper sketches out a preliminary response to these questions by looking at a couple of “Roman” authors (e.g. Longinus, Apuleius) and suggests that we enrich our understanding of Roman literature by reading it in the context of linguistic and literary diversity.
Phiroze Vasunia is Professor of Greek at University College London.
His books include The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander (2001) and The Classics and Colonial India (2013).
He is the co-author of Postclassicisms (2019).
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