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Joseph O’Neill and Adam Rigoni of Arizona State University are seeking abstracts from a diverse group of scholars and artists that represent multidisciplinary, multicultural redeployments of the Aeneid. We do not propose examining the Aeneid as a decidedly Roman text. Nor do we propose an examination of a cultural artifact. Rather, we seek to present a volume that deploys the Aeneid anew, one that not only reflects the Aeneid’s status as a ‘modern story’, but one that inserts the Aeneid into contemporary discourse. We understand ‘contemporary’ and ‘modern’ rather broadly—essays need not be limited strictly to the new millennium.

Possible topics include:

  • Artistic and cultural appropriation and reclamation, especially from a post-colonial perspective
  • Using the Aeneid to explore constructions of gender
  • Representations of trauma and its effects
  • The Aeneid as therapy
  • The Aeneid and modern commemorations
  • The representation/literature/philosophy/theorizing of immigrants, immigration, refugees, cosmopolitanism, and global justice
  • Race and ethnicity in the Aeneid
  • Using the Aeneid to negotiate difference
  • How the Aeneid complicates, or enriches modern (broadly construed) texts, art works, etc. (such as an analysis of the Aeneid and other later artworks of empire)
  • The Aeneid as symbol and its function as a mine for cultural signposts, etc.
  • The Aeneid and pedagogy
  • The Aeneid in the public and/or digital humanities

Final papers will run approximately 6,000–10,000 words (inclusive of endnotes and works cited) and be formatted according to Chicago Manual of Style (17th Edition). Cite and abbreviate ancient texts according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd Edition). Revisions may be requested as a condition of acceptance. Please send all queries to the editors (Joseph R. O’Neill and Adam Rigoni) at 21stcenturyaeneid@gmail.com.

Prospective authors are invited to submit an abstract of approximately 500 words, along with a select bibliography of at least ten sources, and an author bio of approximately 250 words to the editors at 21stcenturyaeneid@gmail.com by May 1, 2020.

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Photo: "Handwritten" by A. Birkan, licensed under CC BY 2.0