Classical reception studies

Classical reception studies refers to the scholarly enquiry regarding how the Classical world has been received in post-classical societies.

Influenced by reception theory within literature, it departs from the Classical tradition in various ways.

Definition

Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray asserted that Classical reception studies was devoted to examining "the ways in which Greek and Roman material has been transmitted, translated, excerpted, interpreted, rewritten, re-imaged and represented."[1] Charles Martindale thus noted that Classical reception "encompasses all work concerned with postclassical material".[2]

Hardwick and Stray asserted that scholars of reception studies held the relationship between the ancient and modern to be reciprocal, although acknowledged that others believed reception studies only shed light on the receiving society and not on the ancient text or context.[3]

References

Footnotes

Sources

Hardwick, Lorna; Stray, Christopher (2008). "Introduction: Making Conceptions". A Companion to Classical Receptions. Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray (editors). Maldon and Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 19. ISBN 978-1405151672.
Martindale, Charles (2006). "Introduction: Thinking Through Reception". Classics and the Uses of Reception. Charles Martindale and Richard F. Thomas (editors). Maldon and Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 113.