top of page

Ancient Greek poetry and poetics: interactions between theory and practice - 21-22/09/2017, London (




Modern literary critics have often fallen victim to scathing remarks by practicing authors. Inherent in this tendency is the assumption that the work of critics is an incidental epiphenomenon to the more essential activity of creative literary art. Critical theories of literature are thought to follow from the practice of authors who pay little heed to the former in blazing their particular trails. It is perhaps as a consequence of such attitudes that the possibility of a mutually influential interaction between poetry and poetics in antiquity has rarely received much scholarly attention. Much excellent research in recent decades has enhanced our understanding of the poetical theories of ancient philosophers, rhetoricians, scholars and grammarians. To name two examples, new and improved editions of the Derveni papyrus and of the Herculaneum papyri of Philodemus have illuminated Classical and Hellenistic methods of interpreting literature – yet the implications of these theories for our understanding of the practice of ancient poets have seldom been the main focus of investigation. Our aim is to address this neglect with a conference to be held at University College London, which will be devoted to the relationship between the theory and practice of ancient Greek poetry.


FECHA/DATE/DATA: 21-22/09/2017



ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Tom Mackenzie


INFO: web - t.mackenzie@ucl.ac.uk ; c.c.de.jonge@hum.leidenuniv.nl


INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE: online


General: 20£ día/day/giorno

Students: 15 £día/day/giorno


Those wishing to attend the conference dinner on the Thursday evening at a cost of £40 should contact Tom Mackenzie (t.mackenzie@ucl.ac.uk), stating any dietary requirements.


PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:



Thursday 21 September 10.00-10.30 Coffee and Registration

10.30-11.00 Welcome and Introduction

11.00-11.50 Andrew Ford (Princeton): 'Between Poets and Philosophers: Vernacular Criticism in Classical Greece' 11.50-12.40 Tom Mackenzie (UCL): 'Eleatic Poetics' Lunch 14.00-14.50 Theodora Hadjimichael (Warwick): 'Lyric Disturbed' 14.50-15.40 Tom Phillips (Oxford): 'Apollonius’ Argonautica and the Travels of Lyric' Coffee, Tea 16.00-16.50 René Nünlist (Cologne): 'Interaction between Hellenistic Theory and Practice: some Cautionary Remarks' 16.50-17.40 Elizabeth Asmis (Chicago): 'Philodemus Revisited' Friday 22 September 9.30-10.20 Casper de Jonge (Leiden): 'Antipater of Thessalonica: Poetry and Literary Criticism in the Augustan Age' 10.20-11.10 Malcolm Heath (Leeds): 'The Functions of Poetry in On Sublimity' Coffee, tea 11.40-12.30 Luuk Huitink (Heidelberg): ‘“Pictorialism" in Literary Theory and Practice' 12.30-13.20 Emily Kneebone (Cambridge): 'Literary Criticism and Imperial Greek Epic' Lunch 14.30-15.10 Baukje van den Berg (University of Silesia in Katowice): 'Eustathius on Homeric Poetics and Tzetzes’ Poetry on Homer: Poetry and Education in Twelfth-Century Byzantium' 15.10-16.00 Tim Whitmarsh (Cambridge): 'Nonnian Polymers'

16.00-16.30 Plenary Discussion


categorías / tags / categorie

bottom of page