Classical Echoes: Performing the Influence of Ancient Greek and Roman Literature
Organization: Literature
Special Issue Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/literature/special_issues/B781Q58SAM
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of Literature will collect essays addressing the reception, influence, adaptation, or incorporation of literature from the Greco–Roman world into later theatre, film, and television. The Greeks and Romans pioneered a wide range of performed literary styles like tragic and comic drama, or epic and lyric poetry, as well as developing extensive mythic story networks and what we now recognize as formal histories, etc. Some of these works remain among the most influential and beloved writings ever produced by humanity.
Because Greco–Roman literature is so culturally powerful and beloved, receptions and uses of it have occurred continually since the Greco–Roman era itself, in myriad different ways. This Issue seeks articles focused on performed receptions, exploring the cultural and artistic politics of how Greco–Roman material is brought to life for viewers, either on stages or screens. The recent controversies about casting and “historical accuracy” with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey film remind us of the power and perils of live performance in the evocation of classics, so the articles for this Issue will interrogate the weight of and responses to classics’ cultural authority.
The Special Issue aims to provide current scholarly arguments about the role and ongoing power of Greek and Roman literature in theatre, film, television, or other performed media, consistent with the broader aims and scope of Literature. Purposefully taking a broad lens, the Issue seeks essays focused across time periods (e.g., medieval to the present), different national or regional performances/arts, and across media in order to bring together the most comprehensive body of essays possible.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Theatrical or performed adaptation of or allusions to Greek and Roman literature within the Greco–Roman world.
- Medieval European or Middle Eastern reworkings and influence of Greco–Roman poetry or drama.
- Renaissance or Enlightenment re-conceptualizations of classical works.
- Re-writings, reworkings, artistic depictions, stagings, etc., of Greek or Roman literature for popular audiences (including Nolan’s recent film).
- Global receptions and performances of Greco–Roman literature for postcolonial or comparative literature purposes.
- Feminist performed engagement with and critique of classics.
Dr. Phillip Zapkin
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Literature is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords:
- Greek
- Roman
- literature
- reception
- adaptation studies
- classics
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/literature/special_issues/B781Q58SAM
Phillip Zapkin