Epic and History
The Program in Ancient Studies at Brown University, with support by numerous departments, centers, and programs, announces the 2nd Faith and Fredrick Sandstrom Conference:
EPIC AND HISTORY
A Faith and Frederick Sandstrom Conference in Ancient Studies
at Brown University
Dec. 1-3, 2006
Lobby, Inn at Brown, 101 Thayer Street
PROGRAM
Friday, Dec. 1
1:00 Welcome: Prof. David Kertzer (Provost, Brown University)
Introduction: Kurt A. Raaflaub (Director, Program in Ancient Studies)
Section I: West and South Asia (Moderator: Mary Bachvarova)
1:15 Susan Niditch (Amherst College):
“Epic and History with Reference to the Biblical Book of Judges: Definitions, ‘Ethnic Genres,’ and the Challenges of Cultural Identity”
2:05 Piotr Michalowski (University of Michigan):
“Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian Heroic Poetry”
2:55 Break
3:20 Joan Westenholz (Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem):
“Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation in Akkadian Heroic Traditions”
4:10 Amir Gilan (Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich):
“Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia – In Search of A Local Hero”
5:00 James Fitzgerald (University of Tennessee):
“No Contest between Memory and Invention: The Case of the Pa¯ndava Heroes of the Maha¯bha¯rata”
5:50 Mary Bachvarova (Willamette University): Comments
7:30 Dinner for speakers and guests (Faculty Club, 1 Magee Street)
Saturday, Dec. 2
Section II: Greece and Rome (Moderator: Kurt Raaflaub)
9:00 Jonas Grethlein (University of Freiburg):
“From “Imperishable Glory” to History: The Iliad and the Trojan War”
9:50 Ewen Bowie (Oxford University):
“History Epicised for Elites, by Elites? Early Greek Narrative Elegy and Apollonius of Rhodes.”
10:40 Break
11:00 Sander Goldberg (University of California, Los Angeles):
“The Truth of Fiction (and Fiction of Truth) in Roman Republican Epic”
11:50 Raymond Marks (University of Missouri, Columbia):
“The Song and the Sword: Reconnecting Epic and History in Silius Italicus’ Punica”
12:40 Kurt Raaflaub (Brown University): Comments
1:00 Lunch Break
Section III: Medieval epic (Moderator: Robert Fulk)
2:30 Olga Merck Davidson (Wellesley College):
“Alexander the Great and the Poetics of Necromancy in Persian Epic”
3:20 Susanna Torres Prieto-Hay (Universidad Complutense de Madrid):
“Slavonic Epic: Past Tales and Present Myths”
4:10 Break
4:30 Geoffrey Russom (Brown University):
“Historicity and Anachronism in Beowulf”
5:20 Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona):
“The Crux with the Nibelungenlied: Historical Epic or Literary Heroic Poem? History vs. Myth”
7:00 Dinner for speakers (Faculty Club, 1 Magee St.)
Sunday, Dec. 3
Section III cont.
9:00 Joseph Duggan (University of California, Berkeley):
“Medieval Epic and History in the Romance Languages”
9:40 Michel-André Bossy (Brown University)
“Roland's Migration from Anglo-Norman Epic to Royal French Chronicle History”
10:30 Break
10:50 Mercedes Vaquero (Brown University):
“A Recurrent Theme of the Spanish Medieval Epic: Legal Complaints and Laments by Noble Women”
11:40 Robert Fulk (Indiana University): Comments
12:00 Lunch break
Section IV: Recent and contemporary oral/epic traditions (Moderator: David Konstan)
1:30 John Miles Foley (University of Missouri, Columbia):
“Traditional History in South-Slavic Epic”
2:20 Dennis Tedlock (State University of New York, Buffalo):
“Man of Rabinal Meets Roland on the Mayan Stage”
3:10 Break
3:30 Richard Whitaker (University of Cape Town):
“History, Myth, and Social Function in Southern African Nguni Praise Poetry”
4:20 Dwight Reynolds (University of California, Santa Barbara):
“History versus Heroism: Conflicting Modes of Narrating the Past in the Epic of the Bani Hilal” (with performance)
5:20 David Konstan: Comments
5:30 Dean Miller: Final comments
7:00 Dinner for remaining speakers (restaurant to be announced)
Free and open to the public.
For information: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Ancient_Studies or
Maria_Sokolova@Brown.edu