Homer’s Readers, Ancient and Modern

FAIN: FS-50100-06

Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1015)
James I. Porter (Project Director: March 2006 to June 2009)

A four-week seminar for fifteen college and university faculty to engage them in a close analysis of the reception of Homer's epic poems, from ancient times to the twentieth century.

I am proposing to host a four-week seminar for fifteen college and university teachers, the aim of which will be to investigate the reasons for the extraordinary standing and the enduring attraction of Homer’s epics from antiquity to the present day. Running through the seminar will be larger scale questions about canons, the classical ideal, reception, cultures of scholarship, and cultural memory. In the place of close readings of poetry, the seminar will provide a chance to do a close reading of history itself through case studies over time, while also serving as an introduction to ancient and modern perspectives on Homer.