Papers by Chris Ann Matteo
http://hestia.open.ac.uk/, Jul 31, 2013
View coursework samples and video at https://prezi.com/r2yaricvt7a8/?token=5ab4b54a358596b207b48cb58ef85ffdeb8d31625a4f3466321205d9e8834d81&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
[From an APA/AIA Roundtable Proposal]
"Talking Stones: Teaching Epigraphy in Schools"
This ... more [From an APA/AIA Roundtable Proposal]
"Talking Stones: Teaching Epigraphy in Schools"
This project centers upon teaching inscriptions at the university and especially secondary levels. We are piloting classroom modules, activities and assessments that engage students with various inscribed monuments. This material offers a great deal to teachers and students and can be made to talk in new and exciting ways. We are especially interested to explore what epigraphical resources teachers currently use. In addition, we detail what obstacles stand in the way of integrating epigraphical material into existing curricula. In looking to the future, we invite ideas of the documents and tools teachers would like. Furthermore, we are interested in exploring how to develop training of teachers (professional development strategies and incentives) in order to use epigraphy in learning the Greek and Latin languages and classical culture more generally.
"
Audience Guide 2008-2009, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC., 2008
Amphora 7:1 (Spring 2008) 14-17, 19., 2008
Journal of Narrative Theory, 2000
... Chris Ann Matteo ... a "price on his head," his personal value not merely e... more ... Chris Ann Matteo ... a "price on his head," his personal value not merely estimated or judged, but indeed com-pounded and highly prized (Kim 1:71-73 & 11:198 f.). And though Waverley shares none of Kim's daring defiance (recall Kim's initial straddling pose on Zam-Zammah in ...
Literary Imagination, 2007
Thesis Chapters by Chris Ann Matteo
Challenging critical opinion that the modern novel is profoundly anti-classical, I describe how a... more Challenging critical opinion that the modern novel is profoundly anti-classical, I describe how allusion to Horace, Vergil, Plutarch, and Sophocles, among others, functions in three British novels with claims to epic status: Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, Walter Scott’s Waverley, and George Eliot’s Middlemarch. I discuss the structural implications of classical literacy through close analysis of English prose mixed with Latin and Greek quotation, applying notions from twentieth-century critical theory. Because it is dialogic and chronotopic in nature classical literacy here presumes a world of active discourse between character, narrator/author, and reader. This dialogue opens—rather than closes—the gates of classical literature to a broader appreciation, and justifies these authors’ claims to creating modern epic narrative.
Teaching Documents by Chris Ann Matteo
Cloelia 39:1 (Fall 2009) 22-25.
Conference Presentations by Chris Ann Matteo
In the 1964 Toho film Ghidrah, The Three-Headed Monster, Western audiences witnessed the carnage ... more In the 1964 Toho film Ghidrah, The Three-Headed Monster, Western audiences witnessed the carnage wrought in Japan by one of classical antiquity’s most fearsome beasts, the Hydra. Ever since Hercules battled him in Lerna, the Hydra has been menacing mankind. And while those of us schooled in western mythology have felt sure that Hercules had cauterized those ever-emerging fiery heads – alas, a meteorite lands in a remote mountain region in Japan, where Ghidrah makes his mighty reincarnation. Ghidrah differs from other Toho films in this genre, because of the lack of warplanes and atomic threat; it requires Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan to subdue the terror that Hercules had once tamed.
East meets West in marvelous ways in this film, particularly in the two romance plots. These two story lines lean heavily on the hellenistic novel, which has a long heritage in Western fiction and this too is imported into Western film (Bakhtin and others). In Ghidrah, the princess Selina Salno, from a distant Himalayan kingdom, is the object of an assassination scheme. She is wondrously warned by a mystical portent as she is on an airplane as an emissary to Tokyo; but she is saved from a fiery death and is rediscovered in New York’s Central Park uttering prophecies, stating that she is from the planet Mars. The second romance plot involves Prof. Murai and his fetching niece (who is in the sites of the handsome police detective...) as they unravel the doom that is to come when Ghidrah battles his three mythic adversaries.
Although perhaps disparaged by some critics as camp, Ghidrah illustrates the inventiveness of the genre, where monstrous matings and mutations breed as many plot twists as the Hydra has heads."
This panel examined linguistic diversification in Greek and Roman comedy & satire, broadly define... more This panel examined linguistic diversification in Greek and Roman comedy & satire, broadly defined to including any comic or satiric texts. This included dialect, socio-politically differentiated speech, ethnic language, obscenity, tragicomic or parodic diction, musical and metrical variations, gendered speech, syntactical variation, or generic play. The study of language and linguistic turns in Greek and Roman comedy has been flourishing in the past decade, for example, in the work of Colvin and Willi. Scholarly work on orality and written discourse has also been a fertile seedbed, including but not limited to the use of conventions from mime, tragedy, and Homeric diction. Perhaps the most fertile source of the energy in the study of the representation of language in Greek and Roman comedy & satire has been the growing interest among classicists in the broader cultural contexts within which the Greeks and Romans worked, played, wrote, and responded to dramatic performances & satire. The panelists included scholars who explored linguistic aspects aspects of comedy, with a particular emphasis on the spoken joke, word choice, expression of dialect in the Greek or Latin language. It also addressed how the use of speech to differentiates characters with respect to social status. The presenters supported their papers by including performing oral selections from their chosen ancient text or texts.
Speakers: 1. Jamie Fishman (University of Cincinnati) "Virtuous Antithesis: Speech Patterns in Menander’s Dyskolos"; 2. Peter Barrios-Lech, (University of California, Santa Clara) The Language of the uxor dotata and bona matrona in Plautus; 3. Viviane Sophie Klein (Boston University) "Performing the Patron-Client Relationship: Dramaturgical Cues in Horace’s Sermones II.5"
Women have been both the putative causes of war and its most constant victims. This panel explore... more Women have been both the putative causes of war and its most constant victims. This panel explored the relationship between women and the causes, contingencies, and consequences of military conflict in the Greco-Roman world and its literary and material culture. Leaving aside a strict definition of war, the WCC invited papers that explored the relationship between women and the causes, contingencies, and consequences of military conflict in the Greco-Roman world and its literary and material culture, in the light of any methodological and theoretical perspective.
At a time when the United States is engaged in wars on two fronts and when the rhetoric of war includes appeals to terrorism, nationalism, religious belief, and cultural exceptionalism, this topic was a timely one for the membership of the American Philological Association. Welcomed were comparative historical, geo-political, and cultural/literary approaches to the topic. Commentary included, but was not limited to: women as warriors; war, women, and myth; women and the legal discourse of war; the militarized body; war crimes against women; the gendering of aggression; women in the context of foreign, civil, and/or domestic wars; women, kinship, and warfare.
Speakers: 1. Danielle La Londe, "Tarpeia’s Peace Treaty in Propertius 4.4,"; 2. Karen Acton, "Imperial Women and the Civil War: Poppaea, Berenice, and Triaria in Tacitus’ Histories"; 3. Marian W. Makins, "From Widows to Witches: Women and Aftermath in Roman Imperial Literature"; and 4. Jacqueline Fabre-Serris, as the Panel Respondent"
See images and clips at https://prezi.com/xrgsf0nqhbyk/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
At the opening—and again at the closing—of Moulin Rouge!, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec sings “Nature Bo... more At the opening—and again at the closing—of Moulin Rouge!, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec sings “Nature Boy.” Dressed as the Magic Sitar in the fictional theater production of Spectacular! Spectacular!, he chants: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn / Is just to love and to love in return." These verses frame the overarching theme of passionate love through the medium of music.
That some form of personification of Love and Music lies at the heart of the Orpheus myth will be no surprise to classically trained reader. But what might be surprising is that in publicity surrounding Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann insisted that this film was his expression of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. At the time of this writing, strong scholarly work on this topic has already been begun, especially in detailing the counterpoints in allegory between both character and plot.
My contribution to this subject, however, takes the analysis to a more abstract level. I argue that Luhrmann wanted not only to combine plot and character in order to create a new story, but that he used the idea of love emerging from music as an aesthetic theory in itself, as a process for his original, cinematic production. This aesthetic philosophy and process creates a creative architecture for the rebirth of this ancient myth. I believe that Luhrmann was contemplating the Dionysiac ritual of sparagmos, central to the theory of drama and musical drama as the aesthetic of this film. This presentation will focus on musical composition of the film (rather than the static visual hybrids or the cinematic editing techniques), and in particular on duets sung between the Orpheus character Christian and the Eurydice character Satine. So doubling of image, song and episodes structure the film just as it structures the twin deaths of Eurydice in the ancient myth. The first sequence I will analyze is titled “Elephant Love Medley.” When researching the sources for the soundtrack, it is very remarkable that the majority of the songs are either covers of well-known, popular songs, or their medleys of songs. To my knowledge the only original piece for the soundtrack is “Come What May,” the quintessential love song of Christian and Satine. By isolating these two episodes from the film, it will be apparent how Baz Luhrmann is using the idea of dismembering a body of artistic work and either leaving those pieces randomly scattered, or, for some viewers, creating unity by imposing aesthetic order on the disorderly process of creative production.
In the field of classical humanities, professors and K -12 teachers alike are witnessing the demo... more In the field of classical humanities, professors and K -12 teachers alike are witnessing the democratizing power of the "podcast" word: audio players are intimate hardware for both our students and the public we want to reach, and they have proven a particularly powerful tool to restore the oral and aural experience in our practice and scholarship.
Defined as a digital recording that is available from the Internet, free of charge, portable, on-demand, and often a serialized narrative, the podcast capitalizes on its wide accessibility as well as its orality. In the past five years, a number of highly successful podcasts in classical languages, literatures and civilization have received critical attention from National Public Radio, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Wired magazine. The time is ripe for academics in classics to harness this technology for our teaching and research.
This panel explores the various kinds of podcasts in the field of classics and classical archaeology. Some of the questions our panelists address include: What role do we see podcasts playing in our culture (educational, entertainment, and research)? How can we productively regard the podcast as an oral performance text, and what implications does this raise? Can podcasts be used in classical scholarship and, if so, how? What are the political or ideological dimensions of conveying the classical antiquity through this new medium? How can podcasting impact what might be perceived as a barrier separating academics and talented amateur scholars?
The four speakers promise to illustrate how we can we foster productive collaborations between academia and the public with this technology. The first describes the genesis and completion of a twelve-part podcast series concerning late antique history, a podcast that has gained impressive reviews with the iTunes public, and attention in the print and broadcast media. The second also concerns ancient history, this time from a private university on iTunesU; it addresses an earlier period in Roman history (Hannibal) and discusses not only this story but material culture and geophysical analysis used in classical archaeology. The third and fourth speakers concern the teaching of Latin language and literature: one demonstrates one method of teaching Vergil in secondary schools using podcasts for exegesis, analysis and commentary; another, from a liberal arts college setting, stresses the usefulness of this technology when applied to teaching Catullus, and the exercise of active language learning in Latin. There will be many intersections among the papers, and these latter two speakers point to how we might use podcasts in our classrooms, in secondary schools, in universities and in the lifelong-learning of the broader public.
We also presented a respondent to these papers, whose podcast experience derives from employing it in teaching classical mythology in a state university, will frame some of the successes and problems facing the scholar as podcaster. What were the pragmatic decisions made in how a given podcast originated, and what practicalities, in terms of time, money and equipment, were involved?
In Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, Tom Jones, a classical education is no sure sign of a gentleman, ... more In Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, Tom Jones, a classical education is no sure sign of a gentleman, and likewise, learned allusion to classical antiquity does not guarantee this novel's comfortable entry into the literary league of gentle, well-bred texts. To this end, a pointed remark from a certain lady’s maid, Mrs. Honour to the classical schoolmaster-turned-manservant, Benjamin Partridge, in a seedy country inn at Upton can illustrate how risky it is to parade one’s classical erudition in pubs: "You may be a Gentleman, Sir, but you don't shew yourself as one, to talk Latin to a woman" (10:4:540).
Classical allusion in eighteenth-century British literature is commonly discussed as a sign of educated gentility and literary decorum. According to the conventional logic, the use of the classical tradition indicates the learned, typically elevated status of the speaker, conferring grace and authority to the statement or text in question. This breach of tact can be read simply as a social fact of the age; but is there perhaps greater significance to Fielding’s libertine narrative strategies? Fielding's classical allusions should not be read simply as a tasteful polish of literary respectability. To do so overemphasizes the Apollonian character of Tom Jones' classical heritage (to borrow a metaphor from Nietzsche). As an experimental narrative form, Tom Jones is a rich example of Dionysian power to upset the status-quo of prose style, sexual mores and genre.
The aims of the presentation were threefold. First, the critical assumptions that surrounding the conceptual intersection where the theory of the novel and the history of the classical tradition meet were described. Second, a necessarily simplified sketch of the plot elaborated on two examples of dangerous gender decorum in the tale itself. This touches upon a larger study concerning classical literacy in the British novel from Fielding to Eliot. The plot is important, because its two levels of exegesis, the diegetic narration of the storyline and the eighteen interwoven theoretical prefaces necessitate the interpretation of incidents in the diegetic narrative in the context of the larger theoretical framework. There is a complementary relationship between the arch-erudite Narrator and Benjamin Partridge, the tale's sage-fool. As part of its narrative strategy, Tom Jones needs the inexpert and indecorous classicist Partridge as much as it needs the virtuoso Narrator, whose seemingly genteel, educated persona is accepted as arbiter of classical erudition. As a narrative strategy, classical literacy in Tom Jones weighs out the clumsy and scandalous speech-acts of "Poor Partridge" against the Narrator's claim to kinship with "the Poor of Parnassus," (12:1:621) diverting the reader from clues to the plot of legitimacy in Tom Jones. Third and finally, the conclusion examined the Prefaces concerning artistic originality and the Muses of genre (11:1 & 13:1), where the Narrator's immodest uses of the classical tradition point to the issue of narrative form. The narrator defines what is licit and what is not permissible in writing and storytelling; this role of social regulator conditions our reading of what classical philology means in Tom Jones, how sex and gender operate in its world, and finally, what genre this book, Tom Jones, belongs to. Part of the aesthetic and intellectual project of Tom Jones is to posit its relationship to the literary canon since classical antiquity, to secure a place for "Prosai-comi-epic Writing" (5:1:209). [4]
In Fielding's Tom Jones, classical allusion works to unveil the mongrel heritage of this novel as literary work, suggesting a place in literary history that parallels its own plot in its ungentlemanly, bastard origins.
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Papers by Chris Ann Matteo
"Talking Stones: Teaching Epigraphy in Schools"
This project centers upon teaching inscriptions at the university and especially secondary levels. We are piloting classroom modules, activities and assessments that engage students with various inscribed monuments. This material offers a great deal to teachers and students and can be made to talk in new and exciting ways. We are especially interested to explore what epigraphical resources teachers currently use. In addition, we detail what obstacles stand in the way of integrating epigraphical material into existing curricula. In looking to the future, we invite ideas of the documents and tools teachers would like. Furthermore, we are interested in exploring how to develop training of teachers (professional development strategies and incentives) in order to use epigraphy in learning the Greek and Latin languages and classical culture more generally.
"
Thesis Chapters by Chris Ann Matteo
Teaching Documents by Chris Ann Matteo
Conference Presentations by Chris Ann Matteo
East meets West in marvelous ways in this film, particularly in the two romance plots. These two story lines lean heavily on the hellenistic novel, which has a long heritage in Western fiction and this too is imported into Western film (Bakhtin and others). In Ghidrah, the princess Selina Salno, from a distant Himalayan kingdom, is the object of an assassination scheme. She is wondrously warned by a mystical portent as she is on an airplane as an emissary to Tokyo; but she is saved from a fiery death and is rediscovered in New York’s Central Park uttering prophecies, stating that she is from the planet Mars. The second romance plot involves Prof. Murai and his fetching niece (who is in the sites of the handsome police detective...) as they unravel the doom that is to come when Ghidrah battles his three mythic adversaries.
Although perhaps disparaged by some critics as camp, Ghidrah illustrates the inventiveness of the genre, where monstrous matings and mutations breed as many plot twists as the Hydra has heads."
Speakers: 1. Jamie Fishman (University of Cincinnati) "Virtuous Antithesis: Speech Patterns in Menander’s Dyskolos"; 2. Peter Barrios-Lech, (University of California, Santa Clara) The Language of the uxor dotata and bona matrona in Plautus; 3. Viviane Sophie Klein (Boston University) "Performing the Patron-Client Relationship: Dramaturgical Cues in Horace’s Sermones II.5"
At a time when the United States is engaged in wars on two fronts and when the rhetoric of war includes appeals to terrorism, nationalism, religious belief, and cultural exceptionalism, this topic was a timely one for the membership of the American Philological Association. Welcomed were comparative historical, geo-political, and cultural/literary approaches to the topic. Commentary included, but was not limited to: women as warriors; war, women, and myth; women and the legal discourse of war; the militarized body; war crimes against women; the gendering of aggression; women in the context of foreign, civil, and/or domestic wars; women, kinship, and warfare.
Speakers: 1. Danielle La Londe, "Tarpeia’s Peace Treaty in Propertius 4.4,"; 2. Karen Acton, "Imperial Women and the Civil War: Poppaea, Berenice, and Triaria in Tacitus’ Histories"; 3. Marian W. Makins, "From Widows to Witches: Women and Aftermath in Roman Imperial Literature"; and 4. Jacqueline Fabre-Serris, as the Panel Respondent"
That some form of personification of Love and Music lies at the heart of the Orpheus myth will be no surprise to classically trained reader. But what might be surprising is that in publicity surrounding Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann insisted that this film was his expression of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. At the time of this writing, strong scholarly work on this topic has already been begun, especially in detailing the counterpoints in allegory between both character and plot.
My contribution to this subject, however, takes the analysis to a more abstract level. I argue that Luhrmann wanted not only to combine plot and character in order to create a new story, but that he used the idea of love emerging from music as an aesthetic theory in itself, as a process for his original, cinematic production. This aesthetic philosophy and process creates a creative architecture for the rebirth of this ancient myth. I believe that Luhrmann was contemplating the Dionysiac ritual of sparagmos, central to the theory of drama and musical drama as the aesthetic of this film. This presentation will focus on musical composition of the film (rather than the static visual hybrids or the cinematic editing techniques), and in particular on duets sung between the Orpheus character Christian and the Eurydice character Satine. So doubling of image, song and episodes structure the film just as it structures the twin deaths of Eurydice in the ancient myth. The first sequence I will analyze is titled “Elephant Love Medley.” When researching the sources for the soundtrack, it is very remarkable that the majority of the songs are either covers of well-known, popular songs, or their medleys of songs. To my knowledge the only original piece for the soundtrack is “Come What May,” the quintessential love song of Christian and Satine. By isolating these two episodes from the film, it will be apparent how Baz Luhrmann is using the idea of dismembering a body of artistic work and either leaving those pieces randomly scattered, or, for some viewers, creating unity by imposing aesthetic order on the disorderly process of creative production.
Defined as a digital recording that is available from the Internet, free of charge, portable, on-demand, and often a serialized narrative, the podcast capitalizes on its wide accessibility as well as its orality. In the past five years, a number of highly successful podcasts in classical languages, literatures and civilization have received critical attention from National Public Radio, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Wired magazine. The time is ripe for academics in classics to harness this technology for our teaching and research.
This panel explores the various kinds of podcasts in the field of classics and classical archaeology. Some of the questions our panelists address include: What role do we see podcasts playing in our culture (educational, entertainment, and research)? How can we productively regard the podcast as an oral performance text, and what implications does this raise? Can podcasts be used in classical scholarship and, if so, how? What are the political or ideological dimensions of conveying the classical antiquity through this new medium? How can podcasting impact what might be perceived as a barrier separating academics and talented amateur scholars?
The four speakers promise to illustrate how we can we foster productive collaborations between academia and the public with this technology. The first describes the genesis and completion of a twelve-part podcast series concerning late antique history, a podcast that has gained impressive reviews with the iTunes public, and attention in the print and broadcast media. The second also concerns ancient history, this time from a private university on iTunesU; it addresses an earlier period in Roman history (Hannibal) and discusses not only this story but material culture and geophysical analysis used in classical archaeology. The third and fourth speakers concern the teaching of Latin language and literature: one demonstrates one method of teaching Vergil in secondary schools using podcasts for exegesis, analysis and commentary; another, from a liberal arts college setting, stresses the usefulness of this technology when applied to teaching Catullus, and the exercise of active language learning in Latin. There will be many intersections among the papers, and these latter two speakers point to how we might use podcasts in our classrooms, in secondary schools, in universities and in the lifelong-learning of the broader public.
We also presented a respondent to these papers, whose podcast experience derives from employing it in teaching classical mythology in a state university, will frame some of the successes and problems facing the scholar as podcaster. What were the pragmatic decisions made in how a given podcast originated, and what practicalities, in terms of time, money and equipment, were involved?
Classical allusion in eighteenth-century British literature is commonly discussed as a sign of educated gentility and literary decorum. According to the conventional logic, the use of the classical tradition indicates the learned, typically elevated status of the speaker, conferring grace and authority to the statement or text in question. This breach of tact can be read simply as a social fact of the age; but is there perhaps greater significance to Fielding’s libertine narrative strategies? Fielding's classical allusions should not be read simply as a tasteful polish of literary respectability. To do so overemphasizes the Apollonian character of Tom Jones' classical heritage (to borrow a metaphor from Nietzsche). As an experimental narrative form, Tom Jones is a rich example of Dionysian power to upset the status-quo of prose style, sexual mores and genre.
The aims of the presentation were threefold. First, the critical assumptions that surrounding the conceptual intersection where the theory of the novel and the history of the classical tradition meet were described. Second, a necessarily simplified sketch of the plot elaborated on two examples of dangerous gender decorum in the tale itself. This touches upon a larger study concerning classical literacy in the British novel from Fielding to Eliot. The plot is important, because its two levels of exegesis, the diegetic narration of the storyline and the eighteen interwoven theoretical prefaces necessitate the interpretation of incidents in the diegetic narrative in the context of the larger theoretical framework. There is a complementary relationship between the arch-erudite Narrator and Benjamin Partridge, the tale's sage-fool. As part of its narrative strategy, Tom Jones needs the inexpert and indecorous classicist Partridge as much as it needs the virtuoso Narrator, whose seemingly genteel, educated persona is accepted as arbiter of classical erudition. As a narrative strategy, classical literacy in Tom Jones weighs out the clumsy and scandalous speech-acts of "Poor Partridge" against the Narrator's claim to kinship with "the Poor of Parnassus," (12:1:621) diverting the reader from clues to the plot of legitimacy in Tom Jones. Third and finally, the conclusion examined the Prefaces concerning artistic originality and the Muses of genre (11:1 & 13:1), where the Narrator's immodest uses of the classical tradition point to the issue of narrative form. The narrator defines what is licit and what is not permissible in writing and storytelling; this role of social regulator conditions our reading of what classical philology means in Tom Jones, how sex and gender operate in its world, and finally, what genre this book, Tom Jones, belongs to. Part of the aesthetic and intellectual project of Tom Jones is to posit its relationship to the literary canon since classical antiquity, to secure a place for "Prosai-comi-epic Writing" (5:1:209). [4]
In Fielding's Tom Jones, classical allusion works to unveil the mongrel heritage of this novel as literary work, suggesting a place in literary history that parallels its own plot in its ungentlemanly, bastard origins.
"Talking Stones: Teaching Epigraphy in Schools"
This project centers upon teaching inscriptions at the university and especially secondary levels. We are piloting classroom modules, activities and assessments that engage students with various inscribed monuments. This material offers a great deal to teachers and students and can be made to talk in new and exciting ways. We are especially interested to explore what epigraphical resources teachers currently use. In addition, we detail what obstacles stand in the way of integrating epigraphical material into existing curricula. In looking to the future, we invite ideas of the documents and tools teachers would like. Furthermore, we are interested in exploring how to develop training of teachers (professional development strategies and incentives) in order to use epigraphy in learning the Greek and Latin languages and classical culture more generally.
"
East meets West in marvelous ways in this film, particularly in the two romance plots. These two story lines lean heavily on the hellenistic novel, which has a long heritage in Western fiction and this too is imported into Western film (Bakhtin and others). In Ghidrah, the princess Selina Salno, from a distant Himalayan kingdom, is the object of an assassination scheme. She is wondrously warned by a mystical portent as she is on an airplane as an emissary to Tokyo; but she is saved from a fiery death and is rediscovered in New York’s Central Park uttering prophecies, stating that she is from the planet Mars. The second romance plot involves Prof. Murai and his fetching niece (who is in the sites of the handsome police detective...) as they unravel the doom that is to come when Ghidrah battles his three mythic adversaries.
Although perhaps disparaged by some critics as camp, Ghidrah illustrates the inventiveness of the genre, where monstrous matings and mutations breed as many plot twists as the Hydra has heads."
Speakers: 1. Jamie Fishman (University of Cincinnati) "Virtuous Antithesis: Speech Patterns in Menander’s Dyskolos"; 2. Peter Barrios-Lech, (University of California, Santa Clara) The Language of the uxor dotata and bona matrona in Plautus; 3. Viviane Sophie Klein (Boston University) "Performing the Patron-Client Relationship: Dramaturgical Cues in Horace’s Sermones II.5"
At a time when the United States is engaged in wars on two fronts and when the rhetoric of war includes appeals to terrorism, nationalism, religious belief, and cultural exceptionalism, this topic was a timely one for the membership of the American Philological Association. Welcomed were comparative historical, geo-political, and cultural/literary approaches to the topic. Commentary included, but was not limited to: women as warriors; war, women, and myth; women and the legal discourse of war; the militarized body; war crimes against women; the gendering of aggression; women in the context of foreign, civil, and/or domestic wars; women, kinship, and warfare.
Speakers: 1. Danielle La Londe, "Tarpeia’s Peace Treaty in Propertius 4.4,"; 2. Karen Acton, "Imperial Women and the Civil War: Poppaea, Berenice, and Triaria in Tacitus’ Histories"; 3. Marian W. Makins, "From Widows to Witches: Women and Aftermath in Roman Imperial Literature"; and 4. Jacqueline Fabre-Serris, as the Panel Respondent"
That some form of personification of Love and Music lies at the heart of the Orpheus myth will be no surprise to classically trained reader. But what might be surprising is that in publicity surrounding Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann insisted that this film was his expression of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. At the time of this writing, strong scholarly work on this topic has already been begun, especially in detailing the counterpoints in allegory between both character and plot.
My contribution to this subject, however, takes the analysis to a more abstract level. I argue that Luhrmann wanted not only to combine plot and character in order to create a new story, but that he used the idea of love emerging from music as an aesthetic theory in itself, as a process for his original, cinematic production. This aesthetic philosophy and process creates a creative architecture for the rebirth of this ancient myth. I believe that Luhrmann was contemplating the Dionysiac ritual of sparagmos, central to the theory of drama and musical drama as the aesthetic of this film. This presentation will focus on musical composition of the film (rather than the static visual hybrids or the cinematic editing techniques), and in particular on duets sung between the Orpheus character Christian and the Eurydice character Satine. So doubling of image, song and episodes structure the film just as it structures the twin deaths of Eurydice in the ancient myth. The first sequence I will analyze is titled “Elephant Love Medley.” When researching the sources for the soundtrack, it is very remarkable that the majority of the songs are either covers of well-known, popular songs, or their medleys of songs. To my knowledge the only original piece for the soundtrack is “Come What May,” the quintessential love song of Christian and Satine. By isolating these two episodes from the film, it will be apparent how Baz Luhrmann is using the idea of dismembering a body of artistic work and either leaving those pieces randomly scattered, or, for some viewers, creating unity by imposing aesthetic order on the disorderly process of creative production.
Defined as a digital recording that is available from the Internet, free of charge, portable, on-demand, and often a serialized narrative, the podcast capitalizes on its wide accessibility as well as its orality. In the past five years, a number of highly successful podcasts in classical languages, literatures and civilization have received critical attention from National Public Radio, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Wired magazine. The time is ripe for academics in classics to harness this technology for our teaching and research.
This panel explores the various kinds of podcasts in the field of classics and classical archaeology. Some of the questions our panelists address include: What role do we see podcasts playing in our culture (educational, entertainment, and research)? How can we productively regard the podcast as an oral performance text, and what implications does this raise? Can podcasts be used in classical scholarship and, if so, how? What are the political or ideological dimensions of conveying the classical antiquity through this new medium? How can podcasting impact what might be perceived as a barrier separating academics and talented amateur scholars?
The four speakers promise to illustrate how we can we foster productive collaborations between academia and the public with this technology. The first describes the genesis and completion of a twelve-part podcast series concerning late antique history, a podcast that has gained impressive reviews with the iTunes public, and attention in the print and broadcast media. The second also concerns ancient history, this time from a private university on iTunesU; it addresses an earlier period in Roman history (Hannibal) and discusses not only this story but material culture and geophysical analysis used in classical archaeology. The third and fourth speakers concern the teaching of Latin language and literature: one demonstrates one method of teaching Vergil in secondary schools using podcasts for exegesis, analysis and commentary; another, from a liberal arts college setting, stresses the usefulness of this technology when applied to teaching Catullus, and the exercise of active language learning in Latin. There will be many intersections among the papers, and these latter two speakers point to how we might use podcasts in our classrooms, in secondary schools, in universities and in the lifelong-learning of the broader public.
We also presented a respondent to these papers, whose podcast experience derives from employing it in teaching classical mythology in a state university, will frame some of the successes and problems facing the scholar as podcaster. What were the pragmatic decisions made in how a given podcast originated, and what practicalities, in terms of time, money and equipment, were involved?
Classical allusion in eighteenth-century British literature is commonly discussed as a sign of educated gentility and literary decorum. According to the conventional logic, the use of the classical tradition indicates the learned, typically elevated status of the speaker, conferring grace and authority to the statement or text in question. This breach of tact can be read simply as a social fact of the age; but is there perhaps greater significance to Fielding’s libertine narrative strategies? Fielding's classical allusions should not be read simply as a tasteful polish of literary respectability. To do so overemphasizes the Apollonian character of Tom Jones' classical heritage (to borrow a metaphor from Nietzsche). As an experimental narrative form, Tom Jones is a rich example of Dionysian power to upset the status-quo of prose style, sexual mores and genre.
The aims of the presentation were threefold. First, the critical assumptions that surrounding the conceptual intersection where the theory of the novel and the history of the classical tradition meet were described. Second, a necessarily simplified sketch of the plot elaborated on two examples of dangerous gender decorum in the tale itself. This touches upon a larger study concerning classical literacy in the British novel from Fielding to Eliot. The plot is important, because its two levels of exegesis, the diegetic narration of the storyline and the eighteen interwoven theoretical prefaces necessitate the interpretation of incidents in the diegetic narrative in the context of the larger theoretical framework. There is a complementary relationship between the arch-erudite Narrator and Benjamin Partridge, the tale's sage-fool. As part of its narrative strategy, Tom Jones needs the inexpert and indecorous classicist Partridge as much as it needs the virtuoso Narrator, whose seemingly genteel, educated persona is accepted as arbiter of classical erudition. As a narrative strategy, classical literacy in Tom Jones weighs out the clumsy and scandalous speech-acts of "Poor Partridge" against the Narrator's claim to kinship with "the Poor of Parnassus," (12:1:621) diverting the reader from clues to the plot of legitimacy in Tom Jones. Third and finally, the conclusion examined the Prefaces concerning artistic originality and the Muses of genre (11:1 & 13:1), where the Narrator's immodest uses of the classical tradition point to the issue of narrative form. The narrator defines what is licit and what is not permissible in writing and storytelling; this role of social regulator conditions our reading of what classical philology means in Tom Jones, how sex and gender operate in its world, and finally, what genre this book, Tom Jones, belongs to. Part of the aesthetic and intellectual project of Tom Jones is to posit its relationship to the literary canon since classical antiquity, to secure a place for "Prosai-comi-epic Writing" (5:1:209). [4]
In Fielding's Tom Jones, classical allusion works to unveil the mongrel heritage of this novel as literary work, suggesting a place in literary history that parallels its own plot in its ungentlemanly, bastard origins.