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Classics on the Surface: Classical Reception as an Emergent Process

  • Luis Unceta Gómez
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Classical Reception
This chapter is in the book Classical Reception

Abstract

Classical receptions in popular culture are generating unheard-of modes of perceiving and understanding classical antiquity and have challenged the alleged linearity of this process of cultural transfer, thus blurring the boundaries between the classics and us. Thanks to these popular culture artifacts, the field of Classical Reception is growing increasingly aware of the complex interactions between past and present. In this paper, I challenge the idea that the ‘chain of receptions’, understood as a series of successive layers of interpretation accruing over the source text and/or artefact, can darken its ‘actual’ meaning. Thus, classical presences should be sought on the surface of all those layers and not located at an imagined ‘original core’. Using two popular culture case studies as illustrative examples, I problematize the localization of the ‘point of reception’ and propose a more nuanced theoretical approach for the analysis of classical reception in contemporary mass media.

Abstract

Classical receptions in popular culture are generating unheard-of modes of perceiving and understanding classical antiquity and have challenged the alleged linearity of this process of cultural transfer, thus blurring the boundaries between the classics and us. Thanks to these popular culture artifacts, the field of Classical Reception is growing increasingly aware of the complex interactions between past and present. In this paper, I challenge the idea that the ‘chain of receptions’, understood as a series of successive layers of interpretation accruing over the source text and/or artefact, can darken its ‘actual’ meaning. Thus, classical presences should be sought on the surface of all those layers and not located at an imagined ‘original core’. Using two popular culture case studies as illustrative examples, I problematize the localization of the ‘point of reception’ and propose a more nuanced theoretical approach for the analysis of classical reception in contemporary mass media.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. List of Figures XIII
  5. Introduction: Classical Reception in the Early 2020s, Critical Times and Where to Next? 1
  6. Part I: Concepts, Methods, and Intersections in Classical Reception
  7. Section 1: Re-Thinking Classical Reception
  8. The Master’s Tools?: Towards a Politics of Reception 23
  9. Classics on the Surface: Classical Reception as an Emergent Process 41
  10. Masked Celluloid Classics? Shadows of Clytemnestra in Film Noir 61
  11. Section 2: Working with Archives
  12. The “Advent of the New Rule”: An Oresteia (1947) in Prague and the Epistemological Limits of Archivalia 87
  13. Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre, the Greek Dictatorship, and the Ford Foundation: From Handout to Handshake 119
  14. Narcissus, Adonis, and Medusa: Troubled Beauty in Classical Receptions of Film Stardom 139
  15. Section 3: Cultural Intersections
  16. Mocking the Hollywood Epic Canon: Parodies of the Classical World from Latin American Cinema’s Studio Era 169
  17. Suspended Temporalities and Classical Reception: Cassandra in Anne Carson’s Agamemnon 193
  18. Manga and the Power of the Classical Object: The Merging of Eastern and Western Traditions 215
  19. Part II: Classical Receptions in Response to Societal Challenges
  20. Section 4: Forming and Re-Negotiating Identities
  21. Cripping Venus: Intersections of Classics and Disability Studies in Contemporary Receptions of the Venus de Milo 239
  22. Social Justice-Engaged Reception Pedagogy at Wake Forest University 265
  23. Classics on the Italian Stage: Old Habits and ‘New Deals’ 279
  24. Section 5: Greek Tragedy in a Time of Pandemic
  25. Tragedy as an Open Network: Antigone in Ferguson (2016–) and The Nurse Antigone (2022–2023) 307
  26. “Where’s the Body?”: Performing Iphigenia at Aulis in New Zealand during the Pandemic (2020) 329
  27. Section 6: Engaging with Technology and the Wider Public
  28. Escaping Hades: Playing with Classical Reception 357
  29. Classical Reception Meets Pedagogy: The Creation and Uses of the Panoply Vase Animation Project's Our Mythical Childhood and Locus Ludi Animations 383
  30. List of Contributors 409
  31. Index 415
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110773729-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. List of Figures XIII
  5. Introduction: Classical Reception in the Early 2020s, Critical Times and Where to Next? 1
  6. Part I: Concepts, Methods, and Intersections in Classical Reception
  7. Section 1: Re-Thinking Classical Reception
  8. The Master’s Tools?: Towards a Politics of Reception 23
  9. Classics on the Surface: Classical Reception as an Emergent Process 41
  10. Masked Celluloid Classics? Shadows of Clytemnestra in Film Noir 61
  11. Section 2: Working with Archives
  12. The “Advent of the New Rule”: An Oresteia (1947) in Prague and the Epistemological Limits of Archivalia 87
  13. Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre, the Greek Dictatorship, and the Ford Foundation: From Handout to Handshake 119
  14. Narcissus, Adonis, and Medusa: Troubled Beauty in Classical Receptions of Film Stardom 139
  15. Section 3: Cultural Intersections
  16. Mocking the Hollywood Epic Canon: Parodies of the Classical World from Latin American Cinema’s Studio Era 169
  17. Suspended Temporalities and Classical Reception: Cassandra in Anne Carson’s Agamemnon 193
  18. Manga and the Power of the Classical Object: The Merging of Eastern and Western Traditions 215
  19. Part II: Classical Receptions in Response to Societal Challenges
  20. Section 4: Forming and Re-Negotiating Identities
  21. Cripping Venus: Intersections of Classics and Disability Studies in Contemporary Receptions of the Venus de Milo 239
  22. Social Justice-Engaged Reception Pedagogy at Wake Forest University 265
  23. Classics on the Italian Stage: Old Habits and ‘New Deals’ 279
  24. Section 5: Greek Tragedy in a Time of Pandemic
  25. Tragedy as an Open Network: Antigone in Ferguson (2016–) and The Nurse Antigone (2022–2023) 307
  26. “Where’s the Body?”: Performing Iphigenia at Aulis in New Zealand during the Pandemic (2020) 329
  27. Section 6: Engaging with Technology and the Wider Public
  28. Escaping Hades: Playing with Classical Reception 357
  29. Classical Reception Meets Pedagogy: The Creation and Uses of the Panoply Vase Animation Project's Our Mythical Childhood and Locus Ludi Animations 383
  30. List of Contributors 409
  31. Index 415
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