Anna Santory Rodriguez, University of Michigan
This project essentially uses software designed for creating “mind maps,” diagrams representing concepts linked to and arranged around a central idea — in this case, Medea – in order to map the character throughout time, space, and media. Thus, the intersecting patterns of her reception are revealed by a kind of living illustration: a map that moves as research does, allowing the user to both zoom in to trace a specific line of thought and zoom out to see it within a wider context. I hope this visualization of connections enriches seasoned scholars and incipient students alike, simply by challenging the hierarchy of traditional linear approaches to reception.
I envision this as a pedagogical resource for those interested in engaging students in the liveliness, both past and present, of the classical past and its scholars; but I also aspire for it to help scholars appreciate the bigger picture to which they contribute by their research, limited as they are by whatever language, area, medium, and discipline they have specialized in.