Reception and the Classics

This volume collects the majority of papers given at a conference held at Yale University in 2007. That conference, also entitled Reception and the Classics, sought to define and articulate the particular role of Classics and classicists in the project of Reception Studies.1 The field of Reception Studies ranges over a vast stretch of time and material, from classical antiquity to the present day, from literature to art, music, and film; it is thus an inherently interdisciplinary field in its encompassing of a great variety of departments and disciplines, each with its own canons, practices, and shared working assumptions. This interdisciplinary practice has formed the intellectual foundation for the present collection: although Reception Studies as a field has grown in scope and energy between conference and publication, we feel that the question of where Classics stands in relation to its peer disciplines remains alive and crucial--