12-26-2011, 06:45 PM
Jennifer, (my turn) I think you're asking how the culture of the interpreter has changed over the last three hundred years; that is, how Thomas Jefferson approached and understood Cicero vs. say a 21st Century feminist?
Over the last few decades the term 'dead white men' keeps showing up as an excuse to dismiss the knowledge of the past 2000 years. That is a very recent mindset as far as I can tell, and maybe it is an excuse not to even make an effort to understand ancient texts and their authors; although you can see many feminist books written recently about, for example, women's roles in Rome and Greece. Or such as Black Athena.
It is also where I'd like to expand our Roman impressions, getting beyond the armor and into an understanding of the entire Roman civilization, the better to appreciate where the ancient authors were coming from.
Over the last few decades the term 'dead white men' keeps showing up as an excuse to dismiss the knowledge of the past 2000 years. That is a very recent mindset as far as I can tell, and maybe it is an excuse not to even make an effort to understand ancient texts and their authors; although you can see many feminist books written recently about, for example, women's roles in Rome and Greece. Or such as Black Athena.
It is also where I'd like to expand our Roman impressions, getting beyond the armor and into an understanding of the entire Roman civilization, the better to appreciate where the ancient authors were coming from.
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
