Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AGRELITA (The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations of manuscripts and printed books (1320-1550): how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities)
Período documentado: 2021-10-01 hasta 2023-03-31
Until now the reception history of ancient Greece in pre-modern Western Europe has focussed almost exclusively on the transmission of Greek texts. Yet well before the revival of Greek’s teaching, numerous vernacular works, often illustrated, contained elaborate representations of ancient Greece. AGRELITA will study a large corpus of French-language literary works (historical, fictional, poetic, didactic) produced from 1320 to the 1550s in France and Europe, before the first direct translations from Greek to French, as well as the images of their manuscripts and printed books.
The study of these works and their illustrations (text and image’s dialogue and powers of each) will analyze the representations of ancient Greece from the unexplored perspective of the elaboration of a new memory. It will reveal its structure, its meanings, and the various uses that authors made of it with respect to national, regional or European communities they depicted in their works. It will allow to better understand how, at a time which inherited negative preconceptions about the Greeks, Europe nevertheless began to claim ancient Greece as one of its legacies; and lead to a reassessment of the role played by Greece in Western European identities shaping processes. This promises considerable advances in our understanding of the new representations of these communities in this period. AGRELITA also aims to contribute to a general reflexion on the formation of heritages and identities. Its results will provide new insights on our perception on the issue of identity building, at different levels, local, national and European. They will be able to irrigate the research on modern times in history, sociology, memory and European studies.
The study of these works and their illustrations (text and image’s dialogue and powers of each) will analyze the representations of ancient Greece from the unexplored perspective of the elaboration of a new memory. It will reveal its structure, its meanings, and the various uses that authors made of it with respect to national, regional or European communities they depicted in their works. It will allow to better understand how, at a time which inherited negative preconceptions about the Greeks, Europe nevertheless began to claim ancient Greece as one of its legacies; and lead to a reassessment of the role played by Greece in Western European identities shaping processes. This promises considerable advances in our understanding of the new representations of these communities in this period. AGRELITA also aims to contribute to a general reflexion on the formation of heritages and identities. Its results will provide new insights on our perception on the issue of identity building, at different levels, local, national and European. They will be able to irrigate the research on modern times in history, sociology, memory and European studies.
I-The first year (October 2021-September 2022):
a) The organization of the work, of the corpus analysis, the realization of the DMP
b) WP 1 Naming and Representing Greeks, Greek Space, Greek language
c) The organization of events held during the second year of the project
d) Talks at conferences and seminars
e) Papers
f) 1 call for papers for a journal issue (PI)
II-The first six months of the second year (October 2022-March 2023):
a) Finalizing book 1(WP1), submitted to Brepols publishing
b) Continuation of the corpus analysis
c) Starting WP2 Indirect reception of knowledge about Greece
d) Starting WP5 Heritage and identity from the Middle Ages to today
e) Two visiting scholars (research residencies)
f) 8 submitted papers (peer-reviewed journals)
g) Participation at conferences, workshops
h) Organization of events held in May, June, and September 2023
i) Starting of the monographic book (PI)
j) Problems and difficulties
Please find the whole explanation of the work performed from Month1 to Month18 as well as the major achievements of the Project in the technical part document (Part B).
a) The organization of the work, of the corpus analysis, the realization of the DMP
b) WP 1 Naming and Representing Greeks, Greek Space, Greek language
c) The organization of events held during the second year of the project
d) Talks at conferences and seminars
e) Papers
f) 1 call for papers for a journal issue (PI)
II-The first six months of the second year (October 2022-March 2023):
a) Finalizing book 1(WP1), submitted to Brepols publishing
b) Continuation of the corpus analysis
c) Starting WP2 Indirect reception of knowledge about Greece
d) Starting WP5 Heritage and identity from the Middle Ages to today
e) Two visiting scholars (research residencies)
f) 8 submitted papers (peer-reviewed journals)
g) Participation at conferences, workshops
h) Organization of events held in May, June, and September 2023
i) Starting of the monographic book (PI)
j) Problems and difficulties
Please find the whole explanation of the work performed from Month1 to Month18 as well as the major achievements of the Project in the technical part document (Part B).
During the first year, the team worked on WP 1. We were confronted with a difficult and almost never explored question: what ancient Greece geographically and spatially represents for the authors and artists of the considered period. The team questioned the idea that the representation of a Greek « entity » reappeared for the first time in centuries with the rediscovery of Ptolemy (15th C). The team studied the different perceptions and representations of the Greek space, in its unity and/or its diversity, which are expressed and renewed during these three centuries, as well as the naming of the Greek places and Greece which accompany them.
During the next six months, the team worked on WP2, the development of direct translations from Greek to French begins only from the 1550s. From the beginning of the 14th Century until the middle of the 16th Century, French-language authors and artists have no direct contact with Greek works. The knowledge about ancient Greece that they transmit and reinvent is mediated by various filters. These indirect translations have been neglected as if they were not scientific. Yet they were a very important part of the reception of ancient Greece, many of which were disseminated over the centuries and played a crucial role in shaping ancient Greece’s memory.
We also started to work on WP5 Heritage and identity from the Middle Ages to today, which runs from year 2 until the end of the project.WP5 is indeed a transversal axis that opens AGRELITA to other corpora, other periods, and other disciplines.
From year 3 until the end of the project, the team will work on WP 3 - on the inventions of traditions of Greek political origins - and WP 4 -new uses of Greek mythology -.
We aim to contribute to a general reflection on how memories are created, how heritages are invented, and how cultural and political identities are shaped.
During the next six months, the team worked on WP2, the development of direct translations from Greek to French begins only from the 1550s. From the beginning of the 14th Century until the middle of the 16th Century, French-language authors and artists have no direct contact with Greek works. The knowledge about ancient Greece that they transmit and reinvent is mediated by various filters. These indirect translations have been neglected as if they were not scientific. Yet they were a very important part of the reception of ancient Greece, many of which were disseminated over the centuries and played a crucial role in shaping ancient Greece’s memory.
We also started to work on WP5 Heritage and identity from the Middle Ages to today, which runs from year 2 until the end of the project.WP5 is indeed a transversal axis that opens AGRELITA to other corpora, other periods, and other disciplines.
From year 3 until the end of the project, the team will work on WP 3 - on the inventions of traditions of Greek political origins - and WP 4 -new uses of Greek mythology -.
We aim to contribute to a general reflection on how memories are created, how heritages are invented, and how cultural and political identities are shaped.