Imagines VII – Playful Classics (5-6 March 2021)

Antiquity is not to be trifled with, or so one might believe from the majority of serious scholarship. Classical reception, however, is rich in playful recreations, inventions and parodies of antiquity. The results are anything but mere entertainment. Their variety and their impact would be ignored at the peril of understanding fashions of classical reception – and the historical traditions they in turn shaped, influenced or undermined. Classical reception is very much an ongoing creative process.

The 7th Imagines conference will therefore turn to all kinds of playful reception in the visual and performing arts from the 19th to the 21st century. The event’s programme will include – but is by no means restricted to – improv theatre, video games, sculpture, living history, opera, board games, graffiti art and other kinds of adaptation and interaction with classical antiquity. We are particularly interested in the creative aspects of “traditions in the making”, in issues of alternate realities and in the non-European tradition.

Imagines VII – Playful Classics is hosted by the Göttingen Department of Ancient History  in co-operation with the Tom Stern Film Archive  and co-organized by Juliette Harrisson (Birmingham), Antje Kuhle (Regensburg) and Martin Lindner (Göttingen).