# Classical reception > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Classical_reception > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Classical_reception.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_reception > Source revision: 1345397714 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Aspect of culture}} The study of '''classical reception''' concerns how the [classical world](/source/classical_antiquity), especially [Ancient Greek literature](/source/Ancient_Greek_literature) and [Latin literature](/source/Latin_literature), has been received since antiquity. It is the study of the portrayal and representation of the ancient world from ancient to modern times. The nature of reception studies is highly interdisciplinary, including literature, art, music, film, and games. The field of study has, within the past few decades, become an increasingly popular and legitimized topic of interest in [classical studies](/source/classical_studies).{{cite book |last1=Martindale |first1=Charles |editor1-last=Martindale |editor1-first=Charles |editor2-last=Thomas |editor2-first=Richard F. |title=Classics and the Uses of Reception |url=https://archive.org/details/classicsusesrece00mart |url-access=limited |date=2006 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Maldon and Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/classicsusesrece00mart/page/n16 1] |chapter=Introduction: Thinking Through Reception}} ==Definition== [Lorna Hardwick](/source/Lorna_Hardwick) and [Christopher Stray](/source/Christopher_Stray) assert that Classical reception studies are devoted to examining "the ways in which Greek and Roman material has been transmitted, translated, excerpted, interpreted, rewritten, re-imaged and represented."{{cite book |last1=Hardwick |first1=Lorna |last2=Stray |first2=Christopher |editor1-last=Hardwick |editor1-first=Lorna |editor2-last=Stray |editor2-first=Christopher |title=A Companion to Classical Receptions |url=https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515 |url-access=limited |date=2008 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Maldon and Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515/page/n20 1] |chapter=Introduction: Making Conceptions}} Martindale notes that Classical reception "encompasses all work concerned with postclassical material." Hardwick has also previously defined classical reception as "the artistic or intellectual processes involved in selecting, imitating or adapting ancient works," that also treats display and viewing as active processes.{{cite book |last1=Hardwick |first1=Lorna |title=Reception studies |date=2009 |publisher=Published for the Classical Association by Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-852865-4 |page=5}} Hardwick and Stray state that scholars of reception studies believe that the relationship between the ancient and modern is reciprocal, although they acknowledge that others consider that reception studies only shed light on the receiving society, and not on the ancient text or its context.{{cite book |last1=Hardwick |first1=Lorna |last2=Stray |first2=Christopher |editor1-last=Hardwick |editor1-first=Lorna |editor2-last=Stray |editor2-first=Christopher |title=A Companion to Classical Receptions |url=https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515 |url-access=limited |date=2008 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Maldon and Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515/page/n23 4] |chapter=Introduction: Making Conceptions}} Although reception theory originated from [Hans Robert Jauss](/source/Hans_Robert_Jauss) in the late 1960s, classicists took about 30 years to officially adopt the term. Wide-scale acceptance did not occur until 2009, with the launch of Oxford's on-line periodical, the [Classical Receptions Journal](/source/Classical_Receptions_Journal). ==History== This area of study was first, and historically considered a subset of the [classical tradition](/source/classical_tradition).{{cite book|title=A Companion to Classical Receptions|url=https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515|url-access=limited|last1=Budelmann|first1=Felix|last2=Haubold|first2=Johannes|date=2008|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=9780470696507|editor1-last=Hardwick|editor1-first=Lorna|location=Malden, MA|page=[https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515/page/n20 1]|chapter=Reception and Tradition|editor2-last=Stray|editor2-first=Christopher|doi=10.1002/9780470696507.ch1}} Before ''reception'' gained interest, the ''classical tradition'' was discussed and popularized in the 1920s. While the ''classical tradition'' mainly focuses on how and why Classics fit into the modern world, the term ''reception'' now encompasses classical traditions, with a wide range over the interplay between the cultures that draw inspiration from classical societies and the past itself.{{cite book|title=A Companion to Classical Receptions|url=https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515|url-access=limited|last1=Budelmann|first1=Felix|last2=Haubold|first2=Johannes|date=2008|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=9780470696507|editor1-last=Hardwick|editor1-first=Lorna|location=Malden, MA|page=[https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515/page/n21 2]|chapter=Reception and Tradition|editor2-last=Stray|editor2-first=Christopher|doi=10.1002/9780470696507.ch1}} Due to the nature of classical reception, which was heavily influenced by [reception theory](/source/reception_theory), classical reception theory departs from the [classical tradition](/source/classical_tradition) in various ways. Tradition tends to put a premium on continuity, the simple passing down of one influence to another, the context that informed some earlier material. {{cite book|title=A Companion to Classical Receptions|url=https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515|url-access=limited|last1=Budelmann|first1=Felix|last2=Haubold|first2=Johannes|date=2008|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=9780470696507|editor1-last=Hardwick|editor1-first=Lorna|location=Malden, MA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/companiontoclass00hard_515/page/n23 4]–6 |chapter=Reception and Tradition|editor2-last=Stray|editor2-first=Christopher|doi=10.1002/9780470696507.ch1}} Reception, on the other hand, stresses the mediated, situated, contingent character of readings, and the concept that there is no final, correct meaning for any text.{{cite book |last1=Martindale |first1=Charles |editor1-last=Martindale |editor1-first=Charles |editor2-last=Thomas |editor2-first=Richard F. |title=Classics and the Uses of Reception |url=https://archive.org/details/classicsusesrece00mart |url-access=limited |date=2006 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Maldon and Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/classicsusesrece00mart/page/n18 3] |chapter=Introduction: Thinking Through Reception}} [Charles Martindale](/source/Charles_Martindale), a pioneer in classical reception, stated that "our current interpretations of ancient texts, whether or not we are aware of it, are, in complex ways, constructed by the chain of receptions through which their continued readability has been effected. As a result we cannot get back to any originary meaning wholly free of subsequent accretions."{{Cite book|title=Redeeming the Text: Latin Poetry and the Hermeneutics of Reception|last1=Martindale|first1=Charles|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1993|isbn=9780521417174|location=Cambridge|pages=7}} Classical texts are not simply handed down, as implied by the Classical Tradition, but are in fact transformed as they are passed along.{{cite book |last1=Kallendorf |first1=Craig |editor1-last=Hunt |editor1-first=Jeffrey |editor2-last=Smith |editor2-first=R. Alden |editor3-last=Stok |editor3-first=Fabio |title=Classics From Papyrus to the Internet: An Introduction to Transmission and Reception |date=2017 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |isbn=9781477313015 |page=2 |chapter=Foreword}} While scholars generally agree that classical reception differs from the classical tradition, the term classical reception has a variety of definitions. Classical reception scholar Johanna Hanink defines classical reception as "how the ancient past is visibly interwoven in the fabric of the present moment."{{cite web |last1=Hanink |first1=Johanna |title=It's Time to Embrace Critical Classical Reception |url=https://eidolon.pub/its-time-to-embrace-critical-classical-reception-d3491a40eec3 |website=Eidolon |accessdate=1 July 2019 |date=1 May 2017}} The Open University's Classical Receptions in Drama and Poetry in English project adds that "classical receptions also involves analysis of the mediating aspects, such as translation, scholarship, cultural narratives (oral, written and performed) and the artistic and literary practices that create these."{{cite web |title=Classical Receptions in Drama and Poetry in English from c.1970 to the Present |url=http://www2.open.ac.uk/ClassicalStudies/GreekPlays/Projectsite/genintro.html |publisher=The Open University. |accessdate=1 July 2019}} ==See also== * [Neo-Latin studies](/source/Neo-Latin_studies) ==References== {{Reflist}} == Bibliography == {{refbegin|30em}} * {{Cite journal |last=Blevins |first=Jacob |date=2009 |title=none |journal=American Journal of Philology |volume=130 |issue=1 |pages=146–150 |issn=1086-3168 |doi=10.1353/ajp.0.0043 }} * {{cite journal |last=De Pourcq |first=Maarten |title=Classical reception studies: reconceptualizing the study of the classical tradition |journal=International Journal of the Humanities |volume=9 |issue=4 |year=2012 |pages=219–226 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259637598 }} * {{Cite journal |last=Hardwick |first=Lorna |date=2009-01-01 |title=none |journal=Classical Receptions Journal |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1093/crj/clp008 |issn=1759-5134}} * {{Cite book |editor-last=Hardwick |editor-first=Lorna |editor-last2=Stray |editor-first2=Christopher |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=junXEAAAQBAJ }} |title=A companion to classical receptions |date=2011 |edition=Paperback |orig-year=First published 2008 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4443-3922-2 }} * {{Cite journal |last=Henderson |first=John |title=Review of "A companion to classical receptions" |url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2008/2008.08.38/ |year=2008 |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |issn=1055-7660}} * {{Cite journal |last=Tatum |first=James |date=2014 |title=A real short introduction to classical reception theory |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/428/article/815519 |journal=Arion |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=75–96 |doi=10.1353/arn.2014.0011 |issn=2327-6436|url-access=subscription }} {{refend}} Category:Classical studies Category:Cultural heritage Category:Cultural appropriation Category:Western culture Category:Western art Category:Latin-language literature Category:History of poetry Category:History of literature Category:Classical historiography Category:Cultural studies Category:Classical reception studies --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Classical reception](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_reception) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_reception?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.