Call for Papers: Workshop „Idealization and Aesthetic Criteria in Early Greek Epic“, October 2 + 9, 2020

The Department of Classics at the University of Munich (LMU) is pleased to issue a Call for Papers for our Workshop on „Idealization and Aesthetic Criteria in Early Greek Epic“. Submissions are invited from scholars in Classics and neighboring disciplines.
Early Greek Epic is peopled by many stunning divinities and handsome humans. Some produce apt speeches or bewitching song. Characters use a variety of well-made artefacts: they drive exceptional chariots, drink from specially crafted cups, and wield lavishly decorated shields. The epic style is generously equipped to convey aesthetic idealization. What is aesthetically pleasing is integral to epic’s world of ‚bestness‘. Still, early epic’s seemingly shiny surface has many interesting cracks and blotches; and beauty, too, is no simple matter at second glance.
The LMU-workshop aims to study which aesthetic criteria are relevant in early Greek Epic and how aesthetics contributes to early Greek epic’s idealization of the past.

Keynote speakers: Prof. Dr. Robert Mayhew (Seton Hall University) – Prof. Dr. René Nünlist (Cologne University)

Contributions may address the following topics, but are not limited to these:

- Which aesthetic criteria are relevant? Which senses do they speak to?
- How can we approach early epic aesthetics and/or idealization theoretically?
- Which are the techniques and effects of aesthetic idealization?
- What happens when aesthetic idealization is juxtaposed to, say, the grotesque or the burlesque?
- How does what is aesthetically (dis)pleasing relate to issues of morality, cognition, psychology?
- In what ways is aesthetic idealization the same or distinct in different poems?
- How do we interpret phrases like κατὰ κόσμον, κατὰ μοῖραν, and the like?
- What is the aesthetic role, for example, of visual qualities like size, brightness, etc.?
- How have aesthetic qualities, effects, and criteria been appreciated by ancient scholarship? How has this appreciation perhaps influenced today’s scholarship?
- How are scholars‘ views of epic idealization influenced by their own ideology and historical context?

Due to restrictions currently still imposed by Covid-19 regulations in Germany, the workshop will take place online on two consecutive Friday afternoons, October 2 and 9, 2020.
Presentations should be about 25-30 minutes long and in English or German. They will be followed by 30 minutes of discussion. Abstracts of ca. 300 words may be sent to katharina.epstein@klassphil.uni-muenchen.de by July 30.