International Colloquium - Women in/and invective in Greek and Roman Antiquity
The colloquium and a doctoral workshop are organised by Sandra Boehringer (Archaeology and Ancient History: Mediterranean-Europe - ArcHiMedE) and Kirk Ormand (Oberlin College, USA and 2020 USIAS Fellow), and are supported jointly by ArcHiMedE and USIAS.
More than twenty years ago, the eminent Classicist Alessandro Barchiesi observed: “No woman has ever made a name for herself in iambic poetry, except as a victim – and ironically as the perpetrator of the charter myth, Iambe.”1 But are women only the targets of these degrading, humorous, satirical or playful discourses? What do these female figures reveal about the world of the authors who inveigh against them? Have they themselves produced invective? And above all, what gender norms do these practices, considered to be ‘misogynistic’, reveal?
Research into women’s history, gender studies and history of sexuality in ancient world (from Foucault to Butler, from Pomeroy to the Eurykleia group) has since focused attention on other aspects of these discourses of invective and developed new analyses of well-known texts: far from being systematically described in a passive role, women appear, in various types of discursive practice, to deploy a genuine agency.
Taking into account the varied performance contexts (ritual, political, musical, and/or all three) of these invectives, and drawing reasoned parallels with contemporary issues (such as the reappropriation of the insult), the participants in this conference propose to explore the way in which the discursive practice of invective reflects, produces or, on the contrary, transforms gender norms in Greek and Roman antiquity.
The colloquium is proceded by a masterclass & doctoral workshop « Genre, sexualité et retournement de l’insulte. Comparaison triangulaire : Antiquité, Japon moderne, Occident contemporain », which will take place on Monday 26 May (13.30-18.00). As the number of places available is limited, a request to participate must be sent before 20 April 2025 (see the invitation for full details).
1 Barchiesi, Alessandro. 2001. “Horace and Iambos: The Poet as Literary Historian” 149. In Iambic Ideas: Essays on a Poetic Tradition from Archaic Greece to the Late Roman Empire, ed. A. Cavarzere, A. Alone and A. Barchiesi, Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield.
