24 Sep VI Seminar Mythical projections. Monsters in Classical Myth and Their Reception in Modern Time

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Os dejamos información (en inglés) sobre el próximo seminario «Mythical Projections»:

Date: 16 October 2024

Location: Sala de Conferencias (FyL. UAM).

Programme

SESSION 1. 10.00-11.30

Lecture: “Interpreting Monsters: Approaches to the Cyclops Polyphemus” (Prof. Debbie Felton, University of Massachusetts Amherst).

BREAK 11.30-12.00

SESSION 2. 12.00-13.30

Workshop: “We live in Monstrous Times: Classical Monsters in the Contemporary World”

A workshop on the reception of classical monsters in contemporary literature and culture. Designed as an interactive class, participants will collaborate in groups to share ideas about various classical monsters and how they have been reshaped in modern times. Specific materials for this workshop will be provided in due time. The session will be led by Ana González-Rivas, Cristina Salcedo, and Debbie Felton.

Attendance is free. Participation is open to students from any degree and university.

Registration is required to receive the seminar materials and the attendance certificate.

Debbie Felton is Professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she specializes in folklore in classical literature. She is the author of Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity (1999), Monsters and Monarchs: Serial Killers in Classical Myth and History(2021), and many articles about the supernatural in the ancient world. She is also the editor of A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity (2021), The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classical Myth (2024), and A Cultural History of Monsters in Antiquity (forthcoming, 2025).

Monsters and their characteristics provide a broad perspective on a wide variety of ongoing cultural concerns. Aside from informing us about how ancient Mediterranean peoples perceived their environment and interacted with it, the monsters of classical myth constantly provide us with paradigms for new approaches to ancient material, proving their ongoing relevance for the modern world. We may define ‘monster’ as referring broadly to a variety of creatures, most of them exhibiting physical anomalies (such as hybridity or too many limbs) and all of them, in some way or another, transgressing literal or metaphorical boundaries (though sometimes also guarding them). We can also define monsters as creatures that often (but not always) elicit a fear response in those who encounter them. Yet such stories also help remind us that ‘monstrosity’ need not equal ‘evil’, and recent studies on the monstrous tend toward inclusive treatments of the alterity represented by physically anomalous bodies and non-normative behaviour. The Cyclops Polyphemus provides an especially useful example of how one monstrous creature can be viewed from multiple perspectives. This talk will discuss some of the most recent (re-)interpretations of Polyphemus, focusing on his encounters with Odysseus and others.

ORGANISED BY

Ana González-Rivas Fernández (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Cristina Salcedo González (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

COLLABORATING ENTITIES

  • Asteria. Asociación Internacional de Mitocrítica.
  • Grupo de investigación Litterae
  • Proyecto Marginalia Classica IV. Marginalidades clásicas y su recepción en la cultura de masas contemporánea: escapismo y resistencias (PID2023-150513NB-I00)
  • Máster en Estudios Literarios y Culturales Británicos y de los Países de Habla Inglesa (UAM).

REGISTRATION FORM:  //forms.gle/ieCRsUWtoGmwk5rs7

For any inquiries, please contact ana.gonzalez-rivas@uam.es or  crisalce@ucm.es.

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