Iris 2007
Welcome to the Newsletter of the Lambda Classical Caucus!
• Recent publications of interest
For pictures of the LCC/WCC parties, 2004-2007, click here
If you have any pictures to share, we'd love to post them! Send them to Deb Kamen
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Dear colleagues and friends,
I'd like to know whether anyone out there has ideas about or is
working on a monograph that deals with the nexus between the rise of
the male homosexual identity and the interpretive analysis of
literary/classical text in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Such a work would feature prominent classicists, including
Pater, Jowett, Conington, and of course Housman. What's particularly
salient about this period is that it was the time when the
"homosexual" was beginning to be recognized as a type just when the
anti-sodomy laws, in England and elsewhere, were becoming more
stringent. It was also the time when a classical education shifted
from being a "maker of men" to a more private, specialized
discipline. Thus with the recognition of the homosexual as a "type"
in the Foucauldian sense, one can possibly interpret the (classical)
text as a kind of closet with its own special signifiers available
only to "insiders."
Such an historical study might also shed light on why, to me at
least, classics, although it deals with so many queer texts, remains
in many ways so homophobic a discipline, even while it attracts so
many gay students. Jowett's prefatory remarks to this translation of
Plato's Lysis, Phaedrus, and Symposium still speaks, sadly, to many
in our field: "The value which he [Plato] attributes to such loves as
motives to virtue and philosophy is at variance with modern and
Christian notions, but is in accordance with Hellenic sentiment. The
opinion of Christendom has not altogether condemned passionate
friendships between persons of the same sex, but has certainly not
encouraged them, because though innocent in themselves, in a few
temperaments they are liable to degenerate into fearful evil." (By
contrast, in Germany Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Magnus Hirschfeld, and
Hans Licht were very publicly using the classics to advance
homosexual rights and change the anti-sodomy laws. But then the
classics got mixed up with right-wing militarism and fascism.)
We're aware of lingering anti-gay prejudice among some classical
scholars (I won't name names). But, rather alarmingly, I think, in
recent years there grown up a veritable cottage industry of
nonprofessional books, e.g., "The Devil Knows Latin," touting the
classics as an anodyne for the "degeneracy" of postmodernist and
gay/feminist studies (and by implication, lesbian gay people) now
featured in modern education. We hope that the Greek and Roman
classics embody the best of our Western values, but why should they
be used to censor, devalue, or demean all but a select coterie?
I'll be interested in hearing your comments, and I welcome proposals
dealing with all areas of classics.
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Eugene O'Connor
Managing Editor, The Ohio State University Press
180 Pressey Hall
1070 Carmack Road
Columbus, OH 43210
eugene@osupress.org
www.ohiostatepress.org
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Recent publications of interest
Eric G. Lambert, Lois A. Ventura, Daniel E. Hall, Terry Cluse-Tolar, “College Students’ Views on Gay and Lesbian Does: Does Education Make a Difference.” Journal of Homosexuality 50.4 (2006) 1-30. click here for more
Journal of the History of Sexuality 49.3/4 (2005), simultaneously published as Beert C. Verstraete and Vernon L. Provencal, eds. (2005) Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West. New York. click here for more
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to come...
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The Classics Department at the University of Oregon invites applications for a tenure-track position in Ancient Greek Literature at the rank of Assistant Professor, to begin September 2008. Ph.D. is required by the time of appointment and candidates must demonstrate exceptional potential or achievement as scholars and teachers. Primary teaching responsibilities will include Greek and Latin languages and literature at all levels, lower division through M.A., and large lecture courses on classical civilization and ancient culture. The department especially welcomes candidates with strengths in Homer and Archaic or Classical Greek poetry, and who are able to contribute to the University of Oregon’s Humanities program.
Send letter of application and either a dossier including CV, writing sample, and three letters of recommendation or these items separately, postmarked by November 1, 2007, to Search Committee, Department of Classics, University of Oregon, 1415 Kincaid Street, Room 840, Eugene OR 97403-1267.
The University of Oregon is an AA/EO/ADA Institution committed to cultural diversity. The successful candidate will support and enhance a diverse learning and working environment. Women and minority candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Inquiries may be sent to the department chair, Malcolm Wilson, at mwilson@uoregon.edu