Eos
A Scholarly Society Dedicated to Africana Receptions of Ancient Greece and Rome

READS

READS is a seminar series focused on seminal works from the African diaspora. READS aims to prepare Classicists to incorporate these works into their course curricula and scholarship. Each READS session features one work or set of related texts. To foster productive and engaged conversations, participants in a READS session prepare the readings in advance, using discussion questions provided by the facilitators. Previous offerings are listed below.

Interested in proposing a READS session?  Let us know who you are, which text(s) you want to focus on, and where you plan to facilitate the session (e.g., CAAS, your campus). Proposers are responsible for preparing study guides and for recruiting and communicating with participants as needed. We also invite proposers to consider sharing their materials with other facilitators for repeat sessions at other venues.

 

2019: Wole Soyinka's The Bacchae

 
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Wole Soyinka’s The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite (1973) weaves Yoruba mythology and contemporary political and social issues into Euripides’ play. Soyinka was a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, and political activist, and the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1986). As Soyinka says: “The Bacchae belongs to that sparse body of plays which evoke awareness of a particular moment in a people’s history, yet imbue that moment with a hovering, eternal presence.” The play’s emphasis on ritual sparagmos has recently been analyzed by Justine McConnell as a model for thinking about Classical Reception as a destructive-creative process of ripping apart and re-membering, particularly in the African Diaspora.

In 2019, Eos hosted a discussion of this play at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States (plans for other sessions that academic year were disrupted by COVID-19). In 2023 the Soyinka READS was part of the annual meeting of the Classical Association of New England (with thanks to Dominic Machado).

READS, CONFERENCEEos: Africana Receptions of Ancient Greece and Rometragedy, drama, nigeria, euripides, athens