What is Classical Reception?

In the beginning of this resource, I attempted to give a rather simplistic outline of what classical reception is (how the classical world, especially Greek and Roman literature and motif, has been received since antiquity). The following books are all great ways to add onto that definition of classical reception and expand on what it could mean.

Butler, Shane, ed. Deep Classics : Rethinking Classical Reception / Edited by Shane Butler. London ; Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016.

Deep Classics presents a “radical” approach to classics: radical not only as opposed to traditional, but radical in the sense that, for the contributors to the volume, reception goes to the roots of Classical scholarship. For them, reception is not just an afterthought. Deep Classics aims to ask how the study of the ancient past can teach us about our encounters with our own present. What do reconstructions of the ancient past tell us about the limits of our ability to know our own world and imagine its future? How has the contemplation of antiquity shaped both humanistic and scientific disciplines but also non-scholarly modes and practices? Indeed, Deep Classics aims to investigate the impulses that underpin scholarly modes of engagement with the Classical past and show that both “scholarly” and “unscholarly” readings share much in common.

Mac Sweeney, Naoíse. The West : A New History in Fourteen Lives / Naoíse Mac Sweeney. Edition. New York, New York: Dutton, 2023.

Mac Sweeney grounds her narrative of the long history of the “West” in the lives of fourteen real historical figures to argue that the grant narrative of Western Civilization is not only factually wrong, but that the “invention, popularization, and longevity of the grand narrative of Western Civilization all stems from its ideological utility” (6). The modern West does not have a simple origin in classical antiquity and did not develop through an unbroken lineage through medieval Christendom, to the Renaissance, into Enlightenment and then to modernity. Such a narrative exists, and continues to exist, because it serves a purpose to justify Western expansion, imperialism, and ongoing systems of white racial dominance. Mac Sweeney uses her fourteen historical subjects to show examples of peoples whose lives and works help us discern changing ideas about civilization inheritance and imagined cultural genealogies. Indeed, their lives suggest a more rich and diverse set of historical lineages which Mac Sweeney argues we should use as new versions of Western history. 

Pourcq, Maarten de, Nathalie de Haan, and David Rijser, eds. Framing Classical Reception Studies : Different Perspectives on a Developing Field / Edited by Maarten De Pourcq, Nathalie de Haan, David Rijser. Leiden ; Brill, 2020.

A more general overview of the field of reception studies, Reception Studies: Different Perspectives on a Developing Field contains a number of essays and chapters representative of many different analytic and synthetic contributions from a diverse set of scholars to the field of classical reception studies. Essays are attentive to questions of what, whom, and in what contexts Classics has functioned and still function in our culture. The book also suggests some future agendas for research in the field, and argues for the relevance of classical reception in the Academy. 

The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature Volumes

The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature volumes present a wide range of examples of classical reception, spanning from 800 to post 1880. Comprised of five volumes, the OHCREL series is a great companion for a student first approaching reception or researchers looking for fresh insights or small details. Although OHCREL offers a great starting point for beginning classical reception research, it does fail to give much of a voice to authors on the margins, an issue this resource hopes to address.