Jonathan L. Ready

The Homeric Wild Papyri and Scribal Performance

Mánudaginn 16. júní 2025 kl. 15.00 / Monday, June 16, 2025, at 15.00
Fyrirlestrasal Eddu (E-103) / Edda auditorium (E-103)

The scribal act of copying an exemplar needs to be understood as a performance. Building on linguistic anthropology’s study of oral performers, my contribution resides in explaining what scribal performance entails. I use the Hellenistic-era wild papyri of the Homeric epics to show how scribal performance involves (1) entextualizing; (2) aiming for completeness; (3) enhancing a text’s affective power; (4) operating as a tradent as well as traditionalizing; (5) negotiating an intertextual gap; (6) fashioning a bookroll; and (7) adopting a stance toward one’s work.

Jonathan L. Ready is a professor of classical studies at the University of Michigan. His most recent monograph is titled Immersion, Identification, and the Iliad (Oxford 2023). His current book project has the working title Euripides’s Orestes and Post-Critique.

Fyrirlesturinn verður haldinn á ensku og er öllum opinn. / The talk will be delivered in English and is open to all.