Literary Interactions under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian

Description

This conference aims to bring different authors of the period (Roman and Greek) into dialogue with each other, with a view to enhancing our understanding both of individual texts and of the literary culture(s) in which they were produced. Papers will examine shared interests, creative tensions, and the wide-ranging dynamics of literary interaction which evolved between writers like Martial, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Juvenal, Suetonius, Plutarch, Dio Chrysostom, Favorinus and Appian, among others. In the process, contributors will also touch on broader social, cultural and political issues, as they explore (for example) the different ways in which contemporary writers talked about intellectual life, engaged with artistic trends, positioned themselves vis-à-vis other authority figures, addressed the changing role of the elite, negotiated political change and continuity, and interrogated the realities and rhetoric of Roman imperial rule. The conference will give scholars with a wide range of expertise the opportunity to examine literary activity across the Roman empire under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian and to see what emerges when this rich and interconnected body of texts is studied collaboratively.

Invited speakers include:
• Rhiannon Ash (Oxford)
• Emma Buckley (St Andrews)
• William Fitzgerald (King's College, London)
• Roy Gibson (Manchester)
• Gavin Kelly (Edinburgh)
• Joseph Howley (Columbia)
• Myles Lavan (St Andrews)
• Jesper Madsen (Syddansk)
• Simon Malloch (Nottingham)
• Ruth Morello (Manchester)
• Tristan Power (New York)
• Victoria Rimell (Rome)
• James Uden (Boston)
• Christopher van den Berg (Amherst College)
• Christopher Whitton (Cambridge)

Period	19 Jun 2013 → 20 Jun 2013
Event type	Other
Sponsor