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 16th of December 2024.
Do not hesitate to contact us for any information.