Category: CfP

Call for papers

Romancing Rhetoric: Imperial Fiction and Late-Antique Rhetorical theories and practices

Ghent University, Belgium, September 25-26, 2025.

 

Whereas overlaps between rhetoric and Latin and Greek fiction from the Imperial era have long been identified and discussed, most of the work done so far has examined how fiction adopts and builds on rhetorical concepts. This conference proposes instead the opposite route and examines to what extent and how Imperial fiction itself, given its rhetorical nature, contributed to shaping rhetorical theory and practice in the 4th to 6th centuries.

In particular, we are interested in seeing how the practices of ancient fiction in Imperial times (for instance, but not limited to, the extant and fragmentary novels, both so-called ‘pagan’ and early Christian fictional(ized) biographies, imaginative travel accounts, paradoxography, collections of letters, etc.) may have influenced the theory, practice and/or teaching of rhetoric in Late Antiquity (treatises, declamations, orations, progymnasmata, letters, panegyrics, ekphrases, etc.). We hope to reach a better understanding of the narrative and fictional qualities of late-antique rhetorical writing, of the late-antique reception of Imperial fiction, and of rhetoricians as readers of fiction. We invite papers that explore the presence of fiction in late-antique rhetorical writing and welcome case studies from a range of texts in Greek and Latin, as well as theoretical approaches.

 

Confirmed speakers: Gianfranco Agosti, Richard Flower, Fotini Hadjittofi, Delphine Lauritzen, Laura Miguélez-Cavero, Lieve Van Hoof, Ruth Webb.

 

300-word abstracts for 20-minute papers can be sent to Nicolo.DAlconzo@ugent.be or Koen.DeTemmerman@ugent.be by the 16^th of December 2024.

Do not hesitate to contact us for any information.

Call for Papers

“Narrative Approaches to the Lives of Ancient Greek Poets”

Ghent University, Belgium, January 16-17, 2025

 

Lives of famous and less famous ancient Greek poets have proved to be a treasure trove of inspiration for authors and other artists across different times and cultures from Antiquity onwards. Texts as diverse as, for example, the pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, the Mnesiepes inscription on Archilochus, the anonymous Lives of Greek tragedians, the dialogic Life of Euripides by Satyrus of Callatis, and the brief biographical entries on Greek poets in the Suda, make up a rich corpus that attests for a continuous interest in the Greek poet as a living character throughout the centuries.

In recent decades, scholarship on these Lives has increasingly turned from questions of historicity to different aspects of their narrative construction and to examining how such aspects relate to aetiological, (meta)literary or other functions. Scholars have thus opened up new directions in interpreting and evaluating these fascinating texts. Our workshop inscribes itself in this recent trend and aims to investigate and discuss different aspects underlying the construction of these texts as narratives.

 

We welcome abstracts on one or more ancient, late antique, or medieval Live(s) or biographical tradition(s) on ancient Greek poets and any aspect of their narrative construction, including but not limited to:

• Heroization
• Characterization
• Narrative patterns
• Rhetorical constructions
• Anecdotes
• Biographical epigrams
• Fiction and fictionality

 

Abstracts of c. 300 words for c. 30-minute papers should be sent to Camila de Moura (camila.demoura@ugent.be) by November 15th, 2024.

 

Place: Sint-Baafshuis, Ghent, Belgium

Dates: January 16-17, 2025

Organisers: Camila de Moura and Koen De Temmerman (Ghent University)