CALL. 06.04.2018: Sophistic Views of the Epic Past from the Classical to the Imperial Age - Winchest
FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 06/04/2018
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 03-04-05/09/2018
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: University of Winchester (Winchester, England)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Paola Bassino; Nicolò Benzi
INFO: pala.bassino@winchester.ac.uk - n.benzi@ucl.ac.uk
CALL:
The aim of this conference is to investigate the ways in which the Sophists engaged with their poetic past, thus suggesting new perspectives and directions for the study of periods of major cultural and social transformation in antiquity. The conference aims to start by examining how the first Sophists, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, appropriated and transformed the poetic past, in order to present themselves as the heirs of traditional culture - only to attempt to replace it with their new, revolutionary models. In addition to this, the conference seeks to explore how, in the Imperial age, writers belonging to the so-called Second Sophistic continued and innovated on this trend in new cultural and political circumstances. In so doing, the conference will identify similarities and differences in the first and second Sophistic’s approaches to the poetic past, and shed further light on aspects of continuity and innovation between them. We invite submission of abstracts from scholars of philosophy, rhetoric, reception of epic, and textual criticism, and encourage an interdisciplinary approach to the topic that covers various aspects of the Sophists’ interaction with the poetic tradition. Authors to be explored include Protagoras, Gorgias, Alcidamas, Prodicus, Antisthenes, Critias, Hippias, Lucian, Dio Chrysostom, and Philostratus.
Please submit an abstract of maximum 300 words to paola.bassino@winchester.ac.uk and n.benzi@ucl.ac.uk. Papers should be about 40 minutes long.
The deadline for submission is 6 April 2018.