COLLOQUIUM: Cynthia Damon, University of Pennsylvania, "Pragmatic or pure? Two experiments in editing."

Thursday, April 23, 2015 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm

402 Cohen Hall, Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 249 South 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19104

This talk is a report from the field on two experiments in editing conducted with recent classes at Penn. The first took a pragmatic approach and produced a mockup of a variorum edition of (some of) Tacitus' Annals; this was part of a graduate seminar. The second, which involved an undergraduate research assistant, a class of Postbacs, and graduate students in LATN 540, adopted a purist approach and produced a text and apparatus for (some of) the Bellum Alexandrinum, a work by an unknown author preserved in the corpus of Caesar's Bella. The pros and cons of each method will be weighed. I will conclude with some reflections on involving students in textual criticism.