Conference's identity and key information
- Organizers: CHS US on behalf of the Network for the Study of Archaic and Classical Greek Song, CHS Greece
- Dates: July 1–5, 2020 (five days)
- Location: Spetses, Greece
- Open to: Scholars, undergraduates, graduates
- Extra-curricular: Group meals
- Participants: 36 speakers, 14 discussants, 50 attendants
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Conference's main contributors:
- Scientific Committee: Gregory Nagy (Harvard/CHS), Lucia Athanassaki (University of Crete/CHS), Tim Power (Rutgers University)
- Organizing Committee: Gregory Nagy, Lucia Athanassaki, Tim Power, Christos Giannopoulos (CHS Greece)
- Organization: Zoe Papadaki (Anargyrios and Korgialenios School of Spetses/AKSS, Spetses)
- Program Coordination: Christos Giannopoulos (CHS Greece, cgiannopoulos@chs.harvard.edu)
- Held: Every two years
- Registration deadlines: Opens in March, closes in May, 2020
- Participation: Cost of participation (accommodation, meals, conference materials) to the Anargyrios and Korgialenios School of Spetses (AKSS) applies
About the conference
Overview
Some of the most notable recent work on Greek lyric poetry represents a critical departure from the preoccupation with occasion and performance that has largely defined its study for the past several decades. There is an emergent rediscovery of lyric as "literature", and with it a growing sense that the focus on context and function can inhibit meaningful engagement with the full discursive, artistic, and ideational complexity and distinctiveness of the texts themselves. Renewed attention to the re-performance and reception of lyric poems has similarly challenged the interpretive privileging of (primary) performance contexts.
Yet, while performance and occasion may no longer be considered the last word in the study of Greek lyric, there is no escaping the fact of their formative influence on the texts we read (even if that influence was not as simple or direct as has often been thought). This conference aims to open what we hope will be an expansive, mutually enriching dialogue between performance-based approaches to lyric and the current (re)turn to its more literary and aesthetic aspects and effects.
Structure and program
The conference will be divided in 14 sessions, hosting 36 speakers and 14 discussants from all over the world (US, Greece, Brazil, Italy, UK, Germany, etc.). The Conference-program starts on the afternoon of July 1 with an introductory session chaired by Gregory Nagy, Lucia Athanassaki, and Tim Power, and it will close on July 5-noon with Richard P. Martin (Stanford) and Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi (Stanford) joining the Conference’s Scientific Committee for a round table discussion.