Classics in Extremis - (Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception) by Edmund Richardson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Classics in Extremisreimagines classical reception. Its contributors explore some of the most remarkable, hard-fought and unsettling claims ever made on the ancient world: from the coal-mines of England to the paradoxes of Borges, from Victorian sexuality to the trenches of the First World War, from American public-school classrooms to contemporary right-wing politics. How does the reception of the ancient world change under impossible strain?

Its protagonists are 'marginal' figures who resisted that definition in the strongest terms. Contributors argue for a decentered model of classical reception: where the 'marginal' shapes the 'central' as much as vice versa - and where the most unlikely appropriations of antiquity often have the greatest impact. What kind of distortions does the model of 'centre' and 'margins' produce? How can 'marginal' receptions be recovered most effectively?

Bringing together some of the leading scholars in the field, Classics in Extremismoves beyond individual case studies to develop fresh methodologies and perspectives on the study of classical reception.

Review Quotes

[The contributors] have enlivened "marginal" voices upon whose winged-words were the Greeks and Romans. The range of these voices is proof that "Classics" has never truly been the exclusive realm of the elite male, despite attempts by the latter to make it so ... Classics in Extremis is an excellent and timely addition to the contemporary scholarly zeitgeist.
Ancient World Magazine

This is a thought-provoking, engaging volume. Its scope ensures that it will appeal to a wide range of audiences, while pushing us to think further not only about the reception of classics in contexts that have often been seen as 'marginal', 'peripheral', or in extremis, but also to see how these 'edges' have been altered and re-shaped by those engaging with Graeco-Roman antiquity.
Classics for All

About the Author

Edmund Richardson is Associate Professor of Classics at Durham University, UK. He has published Classical Victorians: Scholars, Scoundrels and Generals in Pursuit of Antiquity (2013), and was named one of the BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers in 2016.