COLLOQUIUM: Joseph Farrell, University of Pennsylvania, "The Classical Period: Practical and Theoretical Reflections"

Thursday, February 22, 2018 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm

402 Cohen Hall 

The concept of "the classical world" has been foundational to the study of Greek and Roman literature, history, art, and archaeology since the centuries. Yet the chronological boundaries of this world have long tended to differ across the various subdisciplines of Classical Studies. Moreover, the exceptional unity of the classical world as posited by the founders of the discipline has come to seem increasingly questionable in recent years (or really decades at this point), along with the aptness of the word "classical" to describe that world. In this paper I will offer some theoretical reflections on these points in relation to a current project of my own, which is to edit a new, "comprehensive" history of classical literature.