Metaphors of Reception, Reception as Metaphor
Metaphors of Reception, Reception as Metaphor (MoRRaM) will explore the importance of metaphor in relation to classical reception studies, an interdisciplinary field that tracks the interpretation and use of ancient Greek and Roman sources in wide-ranging geographical and historical contexts. The diverse metaphors used to figure the relationship between texts have not yet been the topic of sustained, thematic scholarly research, and the metaphor of reception itself has received little attention, either within Classics or in other literary fields which engage with Greek and Roman texts and cultures.
Participants in the group will explore metaphors of reception from key moments which set the intellectual and terminological agenda for the “Western tradition,” broadly defined, from ancient Greek and Roman texts to Renaissance Italian, nineteenth-century German, and postcolonial literatures. We will also investigate the genealogy of the term “reception” and its metaphysical and epistemological presuppositions and implications. Who, or what, is the point of reception? Should this be a subsequent text, which “receives” an earlier text? Or is this the reader of the subsequent text, who themselves constitutes an essential horizon of meaning? Does the term “reception,” which ultimately comes from the Latin root capio, capere (to capture, catch, seize) commit us to a theory of knowledge based on definitive possession?
Public programs will include a workshop series with invited speakers (Autumn 24, Spring 25, and Autumn 25) and a major conference (Spring 26). To learn more about this group, please contact Harriet Fertik (fertik.1@osu.edu) and Ben Folit-Weinberg (folit-weinberg.1@osu.edu).
Working Group Leaders
Harriet Fertik, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics
Ben Folit-Weinberg, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics
Jonathan Combs-Schilling, Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian
Paul Reitter, Professor, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Image, previous page: Sir John Soane’s Museum, London