classical studies

“Bites Here and There”:

Literal and Metaphorical Cannibalism across Disciplines

The organiser of the Bites Conference (University of Warwick, 17 November 2018) invites contributions for an edited essay collection, provisionally titled “Bites Here and There”: Literal and Metaphorical Cannibalism across Disciplines.

I am interested in submissions that explore instances of literal or metaphorical cannibalism across fields, and we invite abstracts on topics and disciplines including, but not limited to:

The literature of ancient Greece and Rome has survived for thousands of years. As a result, Classical literary and philosophical works have served as a profound influence on the writings of subsequent time periods. Indeed, in many subsequent time periods, the ability to quote from Classical sources became a marker of status and intelligence. However, many works of ancient Greece and Rome are not wholly original, but in fact flaunt their use of source materials, citing earlier versions of myths and epics. Often, Classical and post-Classical authors would modify their source materials, and we are able to see them not only as writers, but as readers in their own right.

Shakespeare gave and withheld knowledge to craft his plot and engage his audience. We are taken on a guided ride from which we glimpse what the playwright chooses thus forming our layers of knowledge through which we are manipulated. What we know can be what we knew before attending the play, based on dialogue from the characters, or from reported speech of events off stage and even in times before the play.

Those scholars committed to an inter-disciplinary perspective on human experiences confront centuries-old divisions between and among the natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities, competing investigative methods, descriptive foci, and explanatory emphases. Bolstered by specialization, administrative demarcations, professionalization, and expertise, the discontinuities generate trajectories of intellectual enrichment and progress.  On the other hand, have scholars within these intellectual spheres, disciplines, and area studies become passing ships in the night?  What would constitute evidence of this condition, if this is, indeed, the case? Have scholars not been displaced from public discourse and social media?

Special Issue "War and Literature: Commiserating with the Enemy"

• Special Issue Editors
• Special Issue Information
• Keywords
• Published Papers

A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 11 January 2019