What Makes the West Western?
Naoíse Mac Sweeney’s new book tries to convince readers that Western civilisation doesn’t exist.
James Kierstead
· 15 min read
Classics
A collection of 15 posts
Fragments Against the Ruins
In his deliberately archaic new rendition of Homer’s epic, Jeffrey Duban takes a defiant stand against the modernisation of classical literature in defence of a disappearing tradition.
Jaspreet Singh Boparai
· 17 min read
The Ancient Roots of Western Self-Criticism
The West’s enduring success is rooted in its awareness of its own faults and constant striving to be better. Far from being a modern phenomenon, the tradition of Western self-criticism began with Homer.
Marian L. Tupy
· 7 min read
Epic Failure
Many of the people involved in Uberto Pasolini’s new screen adaptation of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ are intimidatingly talented. It’s a pity, then, that the film is such a disaster.
Jaspreet Singh Boparai
· 14 min read
Where Do Works of Art Belong?
An Artist's Response to James Kierstead’s “The Elgin Marbles: Playing for Keeps"
Megan Gafford
· 12 min read
The Elgin Marbles: Playing for Keeps
The Ancient Greek sculptures are a bellwether of where the “decolonization” of museums is headed.
James Kierstead
· 14 min read
The Male Obsession with Ancient Rome
We are all Rome’s children. Its legacy is everywhere we look.
Stewart Slater
· 9 min read
Our Lost Classical Learning
The Western canon was not an unchanging set of texts, but an ongoing conversation that lasted thousands of years—enabling each generation to build on the intellectual heritage of the past.
Brian Kaller
· 7 min read
Making Homer and Vergil Optional at Oxford Won't 'Diversify' Classics
Most of us in Classics presumably read some Homer and/or Vergil at some point during our undergraduate careers, at least in translation, but there is no mandate that we do so.
Solveig Lucia Gold
· 7 min read
How I was Kicked Out of the Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting
We must stand up to those who have no interest in the discipline of Classics or its survival—who even seek its destruction.
Mary Frances Williams
· 20 min read
Are the Classics Complicit in White Supremacy?
No reason to believe that classics as a field has had any particular tendency towards white supremacism either in the present or in the past.
James Kierstead
· 9 min read
Is Western Civilization Uniquely Bad?
If we are looking for a civilization that never engaged in mass violence or destruction, we’re unlikely to find one.
James Kierstead
· 8 min read
Is Western Civilization a Thing?
Appiah is wrong to pretend that distinct civilizations were never a thing.
James Kierstead
· 9 min read
The Future of Our Ancient Past
There’s nothing wrong with teaching Western Civilization or the Western classics alongside other cultural traditions. At the same time, the way Classics used to be taught is gone for good.
James Kierstead
· 6 min read
From To Kill a Mockingbird to Ballet Shoes — A Plea to Save Children's Literature
Reading is a gateway to empathy and understanding.
Carla Wilson
· 10 min read