Please consider submitting an abstract to this seminar at the American
Comparative Literature Association at: http://app.outreach.psu.edu/acla
This year's meeting is a Penn State, March 11-13. The deadline is
November 1.
The Empire of Classics in Contemporary Literature, Culture, and Theory
(Sponsored by the journal Comparative Literature Studies )
Organizer: Paul Allen Miller, University of South Carolina
Email: pamiller@xxxxxx
A key element in contemporary and especially poststructuralist theory
has been its reception of classical philosophy and literature. In the
terms provided by the conference, this phenomenon represents a "temporal
imperialism"; less clear, however, is who "rules" this empire. Does the
past continue to hold sway over the present? Or, does the present
dominate the past by reshaping, reformulating, and recontextualizing its
languages and ideas? Are we dominated by a Classicism or presentism? If
a dialectic is at work, what are its terms and dynamics? What are the
stakes of this interrogation of the present's relation to the
foundational discourses of the past?
This seminar seeks answers to these questions by examining contemporary
responses to the foundational texts of both Eastern and Western
traditions. We welcome papers on individual authors and influences that
address the importance of ancient philosophy and literature, East and
West, for contemporary literature, philosophy, and literary theory,
including poststructural and postcolonial theory.
This session is sponsored by the journal Comparative Literature Studies
. Papers from the seminar revised to the standards of scholarly articles
will be considered for a special issue on this topic.
Paul Allen Miller
Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature
Incoming Editor of TAPA
Languages, Literatures and Cultures
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(ph.) 803-777-0951
(fax) 803-777-7514
Comparative Literature Association at: http://app.outreach.psu.edu/acla
This year's meeting is a Penn State, March 11-13. The deadline is
November 1.
The Empire of Classics in Contemporary Literature, Culture, and Theory
(Sponsored by the journal Comparative Literature Studies )
Organizer: Paul Allen Miller, University of South Carolina
Email: pamiller@xxxxxx
A key element in contemporary and especially poststructuralist theory
has been its reception of classical philosophy and literature. In the
terms provided by the conference, this phenomenon represents a "temporal
imperialism"; less clear, however, is who "rules" this empire. Does the
past continue to hold sway over the present? Or, does the present
dominate the past by reshaping, reformulating, and recontextualizing its
languages and ideas? Are we dominated by a Classicism or presentism? If
a dialectic is at work, what are its terms and dynamics? What are the
stakes of this interrogation of the present's relation to the
foundational discourses of the past?
This seminar seeks answers to these questions by examining contemporary
responses to the foundational texts of both Eastern and Western
traditions. We welcome papers on individual authors and influences that
address the importance of ancient philosophy and literature, East and
West, for contemporary literature, philosophy, and literary theory,
including poststructural and postcolonial theory.
This session is sponsored by the journal Comparative Literature Studies
. Papers from the seminar revised to the standards of scholarly articles
will be considered for a special issue on this topic.
Paul Allen Miller
Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature
Incoming Editor of TAPA
Languages, Literatures and Cultures
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(ph.) 803-777-0951
(fax) 803-777-7514