Costanze Güthenke, Professor of Greek Literature at Corpus Christi College at Univeristy of Oxford, will deliver three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2022 on ‘American Classical Scholarship: Histories of Disorientation.’ From early on, Classical Scholarship in America looked to Europe and looked at itself through Europe as a point of reference, creating a complex triangulation between modern America, contemporary Europe, and the ancient world. These lectures will attempt histories of disorientation that explore individual trajectories (of figures as different as Basil Gildersleeve, William Scarborough, and Helen Magill White, wife of Cornell president A. D. White), genres and modes (Aristophanic comedy), and fluid priorities. Drawing on published scholarly works and unpublished writings, the larger aim is to reflect on disciplinary histories of discomfort and on reoriented disciplinary history in parallel.
September 7, 2022 - Continents
September 9, 2022 - Comedies
September 12, 2022 - Canons
