Reception studies : new surveys in the classics

The book discusses the recent reception of Greek and Roman material in modern drama, poetry and film and sets out the artistic and political contexts in which this has taken place.

The author emphasises the diversity of reception and reshaping that took place even within antiquity as well as subsequently and shows how the selection, transmission and refiguring of texts can be used to map larger shifts in social and cultural frameworks.

The book discusses key examples of such changes, for instance in the notion of heroism and in the relationship between education and civic ideals.

The author identifies and discusses a variety of different approaches to studying the reception and migration of classical material, including developments in newer fields such as film and translation studies.

She argues that awareness of how and why Greek and Roman material has been appropriated and reshaped for other cultural and political purposes provides radical insights into the cultural politics of the receiving artists and societies as well as redirecting attention back to aspects of the ancient world that have been overlooked or marginalised. The book responds to the current upsurge of interest in the ancient world and its relationship with the modern and argues that Greek and Roman drama, poetry and ideas now operate worldwide as a dynamic force for change in the development of new senses of cultural and political identity.