A Companion to Classical Receptions

Abstract

This recent addition to the excellent Blackwell Companions series looks at the various forms of classical reception currently being researched as well as those deemed to have future importance. The diversity and volume of the themes and approaches contained in this book are truly impressive. As Hardwick and Stray state in their introduction, this collection “has been constructed on the basis that the activators of reception are many and varied and that we all gain from encountering examples from outside our own immediate areas of knowledge” (p. 4). Throughout the book they stay true to this motto and traditional approaches to classical reception are not given prominence over more recent (sometimes contentious) approaches such as film studies, cultural politics and photography. The same goes for the various cultures involved and there is even a chapter on Greek drama in South Africa.