Antipodean Antiquities: Classical Reception Down Under

Description

Leading and emerging, early career scholars in Classical Reception Studies come together in this volume to explore the under-represented area of the Australasian Classical Tradition. They interrogate the interactions between Mediterranean Antiquity and the antipodean worlds of New Zealand and Australia through the lenses of literature, film, theatre and fine art. Of interest to scholars across the globe who research the influence of antiquity on modern literature, film, theatre and fine art, this volume fills a decisive gap in the literature by bringing antipodean research into the spotlight. Following a contextual introduction to the field, the six parts of the volume explore the latest research on subjects that range from the Lord of the Rings and Xena: Warrior Princess franchises to important artists such as Sidney Nolan and local authors whose work offers opportunities for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary analysis with well-known Western authors and artists.

Marguerite Johnson is Professor of Classics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia. She is the author of Ovid on Cosmetics (Bloomsbury, 2015), co-editor (with Harold Tarrant) of Alcibiades and the Socratic Lover-Educator (Bloomsbury, 2012) and co-author (with Terry Ryan) of Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook (2005).

This is a timely book, given current debates about teaching 'western civilisation' in our universities. It represents a coming-of-age particularly in Australian classical reception studies, and it will surely be a stimulus to bring less descriptive and more theoretically innovative approaches to bear on the myriad forms of classical reception that saturate Australasia. * The Classical Review * Marguerite Johnson has curated a formidable and impressively diverse collection of essays ... The volume showcases a rich variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, and has the added benefit of presenting familiar classical materials in distinctly unfamiliar contexts, replete with their own unique social and cultural pressures and local systems of scholarship. * Greece & Rome * A well-rounded study highlighting the importance of Greco-Roman history and culture for many Australians and New Zealanders, from convicts to colonisers, ranging from novelists to poets to painters and film-makers. This is exemplary Classical Reception practice. -- Maxine Lewis, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Auckland, New Zealand