The Art of Biography in Antiquity
Sponsored by the International Plutarch Society. Organized by Jeffrey Beneker, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
This panel takes its title and its inspiration from the late Tomas Hägg’s last book (Cambridge 2012), a learned study that surveys the expansive tradition of biographical writing in both Greek and Latin. Following Professor Hägg’s approach, we aim to explore features of the biographical tradition that cut across linguistic, cultural, generic, and chronological boundaries. To that end, we welcome papers on the development, form, and content of ancient biographical writing, whether or not that writing appears in formal biographies. We encourage panelists to focus on comparative studies or works of particular authors, as well as papers that deal with the intersection of biography and other genres, such as historiography, rhetoric, poetry, and philosophy. Our overarching goal is to assemble a collection of papers that explores all aspects of the ancient biographical tradition.
Abstracts should be sent electronically, in MS Word format or PDF, to Jeffrey Beneker (jbeneker@wisc.edu). In preparing the abstract, please follow the formatting guidelines for individual abstracts that appear on the Society for Classical Studies web site, and plan for a paper that takes no more than 20 minutes to deliver. Abstracts will be judged anonymously. Membership in the International Plutarch Society is not required for participation in this panel, but all presenters must be members of the SCS. The deadline is March 1, 2017.