Panel Title
From Sources to Editions and back again.
The Continuity of Classical Literature through Fragmentary Traditions.
Organizers: Francesco Ginelli and Francesco Lupi.
Dealing with fragments is a necessary constituent of classical scholarship and one may argue that Classics is, by definition, a fragmentary discipline at its core. Due to the specific mechanisms of textual tradition, in fact, a vast body of Greek and Latin literary and non-literary works has come down to us in a fragmentary form. Both indirectly and directly transmitted texts have been affected, at least to some degree, by ‘fragmentation’: this, in turn, was brought about by a variety of factors, the most obvious of which range between deliberate selection, as in the case of indirect tradition (e.g. through anthologies, lexicographical and grammatical works etc.), to ‘mechanical’ factors affecting directly transmitted texts (through physical corruption of mediums, as in the case of papyri, epigraphs, and inscriptions of any sort).
As a result, the attribution of fragments to a specific author or literary work, when not based on positive evidence (explicit attribution by the quoting author, presence of scholia etc.), is ruled by ‘internal factors’, among which the fragment’s content and stylistic features. Even the ordering of fragments within an author’s single work or entire oeuvre are tasks subject to the same principles. However, the results reached in the field of fragmentary literature usually cannot be considered as fixed: new archaeological findings, more in-depth analyses on single collections of fragments, and the advancement of classical scholarship itself often challenge the received attribution, ordering, and textual arrangement of fragments, even when these enjoy broad scholarly consensus. Hence the need for new surveys of both the transmitted data and the philological tradition, from revision of the modern critical apparatuses to the inclusion of overlooked fragments and testimonia.
This panel aims therefore to further stimulate the debate on fragments in Classics from multiple perspectives; invited papers, however, shall primarily focus on textual and editorial matters, in an effort to promote a fruitful dialogue between extant and fragmentary texts. In particular, we invite papers on the following topics:
(a) philological and methodological issues arising from the editing of fragmentary texts or from the
employment of fragments in theme-specific analyses of an author;
(b) ‘new’ reconstructions of fragmentary texts, also through the application of innovative methodologies or the integration of different approaches;
(c) the contribution of the fragments’ corpus towards a deeper understanding of an author’s oeuvre. While the main focus of the panel will be on literary texts, we also welcome papers on non-literary texts and iconographic and archaeological evidence either affected by fragmentation or anyhow involved in the editing of fragmentary literary works.
The 10th Celtic Conference in Classics will take place in Montreal (Canada), from 19-22 July, 2017. The Conference provides panels with up to 15 hours of papers and discussion across three days. For this panel we are asking for papers of 35-40 minutes in length, with 10-15 minutes for questions and discussion, but shorter papers (20+10) are also welcome.
Please submit titles and abstracts (as .pdf attachments) of approximately 300 words to fragmentarytraditions.ccc@gmail.com by 31st December 2016. Applicants will be notified of the panel’s decision shortly thereafter. It is expected that a number of the papers delivered at this panel will form part of a peer-reviewed edited volume. Applicants should state whether they would intend their papers to be considered for publication.
The languages of the Celtic Conference in Classics are English and French.