SCS Conference Panel about The Ancient Novel and Material Culture
SCS Conference Panel about The Ancient Novel and Material Culture in Chicago, IL, January 2021 (https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/2021/152/ancient-novel-and-material-culture)
The ancient novels are populated not just by people but also by objects. While individual studies, particularly on ekphrasis, have examined some of the uses of physical objects in ancient novels (Bartsch 1989; Holzmeister 2014) or the depiction of scenes from ancient novels on objects (e.g. Bruneau 1965), there have been few systematic examinations of the presence, function, and interpretations of material objects in and about ancient prose fiction more broadly. Notable exceptions include Magdeleine Clo's 2014 thesis, Les objets dans le roman grec, and the 2016 Rethymnon International Conference on the Ancient Novel on "Material Culture and the Ancient Novel" (Oct. 14-15), both of which have demonstrated the potential of examining objects within ancient novels as tools of characterization, plot devices, and symbols, but the topic has thus far received little attention in the United States.
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