The Wandering Text: Books and the Imperial Migration Machine in the Early Roman Empire

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University Club, Room 212
@ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Portrait image of Tim Whitmarsh standing in front of a wood paneled wall wearing dark glasses and a dark blue suit and tieGuest Lecture:

Tim Whitmarsh

Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, Cambridge University

 

The Roman Empire was a migration machine: it constantly circulated people, objects, money, cults. This paper looks at the Greek novels (usually thought to be located firmly in the classical Greek past, though written in Roman times) as centrally defined by an obsession with the traffic in humans and goods. Indeed, I shall argue, the Greek novel is — in its fundamentals — a genre designed for migration.

 

Tim Whitmarsh joined the Cambridge University faculty as Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in October 2014, after holding professorial posts in Oxford and Exeter. Tim works on all areas of Greek literature and culture, with a particular emphasis on the culture of Greeks under the Roman Empire. He has also written on religion and atheism in the ancient world, and on identity issues.

  • Event is Free and Open to the Public.
  • Lecture will be in the University Club (second floor, to the right of the stairs); but the University Club closes early on Thursdays, so front doors (facing north/Memorial Union/the lake) will be locked. Please use 432 East Campus Mall entrance (under the red sign, up the covered stairs, facing the church)
  • A reception will be held immediately after the talk in Room 211 of the University Club.

This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Center for the Humanities.