The PhD/MA Program in Classics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York invites graduate students in Classics or related fields to submit abstracts for papers that explore the topic of literary culture and poetic theory in the ancient world.

The study of Graeco-Roman civilization offers a window into the development of a self-reflective literary culture, one which posed questions about what literature is, how it affects human life, and how it can be interpreted. This conference aims to investigate how literature was perceived and conceived by ancient authors, audiences/readers and society, how ancient literary culture is constructed in modern perspectives, the aesthetic categories that have informed and underlie those conceptions, and how and why Greeks and Romans discussed, through their words, the nature of language and literature.

Questions the papers might address include but are not limited to:

  • The emergence of literary criticism
  • Literary culture and society
  • The birth and evolution of the concept of literature
  • Ancient literary theory
  • The application of modern literary theory to ancient texts
  • Literary criticism and its social context
  • Metaliterature
  • Ancient theory of genres
  • Rhetorical theory
  • The relationship of visual culture and literary culture
  • The cultural effects of writing technology on literary practice
  • The relationship of primary and secondary authorship: texts and commentaries

Selected papers will be afforded the opportunity to publish in Periodos, a new journal published by the Department of Classics at The Graduate Center.

Please send an anonymous abstract of approximately 300 words as an email attachment by January 15, 2016. Submissions must include, in the body of the email, your name, university affiliation, and the title of the presentation. Speakers will have 15 minutes to present. Selected applicants will be notified by the end of January.

Questions and abstracts will be received by the conference co-chairs Alessandra Migliara and Nathan Oglesby at cunyclassicsconference@gmail.com.