Conference: Inscriptions and their uses in Ancient Literature

Conference announcement:

Inscriptions and their Uses in Ancient Literature: a conference
Department of Classics and Ancient History
University of Manchester
June 25-26, 2009

This conference aims to explore the possibilities which the literary record of ancient inscriptions offer both to those interested in understanding ancient attitudes towards inscriptions and to those interested in exploring the broader relationship (and overlaps) between epigraphical and non-epigraphical modes of expression from a range of literary, historical and epigraphical angles.

Confirmed speakers include J. K. Davies, Damien Nelis and Jocelyn Nelis-Clement, Matthias Haake, Michael Squire, Julia Lougovaya, Andrej Petrovic, Martin Dinter, Yannis Tzifopoulos, Andrew Morrison and David Fearn.

We are also inviting offers of papers on themes which we consider central to this subject:

1. The deployment of epigraphy (real, hypothetical or imaginary) or epigraphic language in particular authors or genres.
2. The reception of inscribed documents (individual documents or types of document) in literary texts.
3. The inscribing of already-circulated literary texts on permanent media.
4. The relationship of ‘inscribed documents’ to ‘uninscribed documents’ in literary texts.

The deadline for titles and abstracts (of 300 words) is 15th August, 2008. All enquiries and offers of papers should be sent to the conference organisers, Polly Low (polly.low@manchester.ac.uk) or Peter Liddel (Peter.liddel@manchester.ac.uk).