Strategic Working Groups

“Old Things”: Classical Studies and Contemporary Humanities || 2009-2010

From the mid to late twentieth century, classical studies experienced an exceptional moment of rejuvenation, breaking from traditional philological concerns and methodologies to include perspectives and techniques from both the social sciences and the humanities, or, more broadly speaking, the “human sciences.” These interventions allowed scholars in the field to rethink and reinterpret image, text and context such that “old things” brought “new” ways of thinking about not only politics, sexuality, religion, and culture but also the relevance of classical studies to the “post-modernist” world. This time has passed. With the dawn of the twenty-first century, a “return” to the classics appears a futile, if not nostalgic, move. This strategic group aims to question just this assertion, to investigate and identify the critical state of classical studies, to explore the origins of and responses to this potential obsolescence, and to query whether this crisis is itself a synecdoche of a systematic crisis in the humanities.

Born as a branch of human endeavor separate from the “sciences,” the humanities are arguably a product of humanism, a movement that began literally with the recovery of Greek and Latin classics. It continued with the scholarly study of the Bible, the ancient Near East, and Egypt, and went on to develop the scholarly study of India, China, Arabic — and eventually the “modern” languages.

If we are in a post-humanistic moment (perhaps even post-human), then it is not only the study of antiquity but also all of the humanities that need to be rethought. Is there a possible opening toward a post-humanist rationale for continuing to study antiquity archeologically, philosophically, literarily, rhetorically? To inquire intensively into the rationale for continuing to investigate the distant past might prove, then, a case for the humanities as a whole.

As such, the question, “What’s happened to classical studies?” would be inextricably linked to the question “What’s happened to the humanities?” (to echo the title of a 1997 collection of essays edited by Alvin Kernan). It is no longer either useful or efficient to place the blame on the linguistic, cultural, or poststructuralist turn. Rather, it might just be the case, in the words of Caroline W. Bynum in a different context, that “the insights of the linguistic turn have been absorbed and utilized.” One task of this Strategic Working Group (SWG) is to methodically reflect on this transformation and incorporation in classical studies and to explore the possibilities of a new type of responsiveness between the classics and the humanities as well as between classical texts and traditions from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean and Europe.

This Strategic Working Group gathers a group of diverse scholars—from both the humanities and social sciences—interested in both classical and contemporary texts in order to think through the old and new foundations of the study of the premodern period, its literature and history. The SWG proposes to begin with a study of Thucydides. Through the rereading of a selection of classic texts—and of influential twentieth- and twenty-first century interpretations —the group hopes to understand further what it would mean today to reinvest in classical studies and the humanities. At the risk of being overly presentist, the SWG also aims to place the “premoderns” in dialogue with a range of pressing contemporary concerns arising in the arts, politics and ethics and to identify how classic studies might enliven and redirect debates regarding such issues as “living through” and “returning from” war; new uses and definitions of writing, orality, images and performance arts; the practice and study of religion and spirituality; and the creation of national and ethnic identities.

Co-Conveners: Daniel Boyarin (Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric), Ramona Naddaff (Rhetoric)
Participants: Deborah Blocker (French), Niklaus Largier (German), Maria Mavroudi (History), Carolyn Merchant (Environmental Science, Policy, and Management), Michael Nylan (History), Benjamin Porter (Near Eastern Studies)