Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DIGIMYTH (Digital Mythology and Arabic Literature: A Digital Archive to Study the Dynamics of the Reception of Greek Myths in Modern Arabic Literature)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-12-01 al 2024-11-30
The reception of the Greek classics and mythology in modern Arabic literature is part of the process of cultural interaction between Europe and the Arab world that, since 19th century, represented one of the engines of the cultural renaissance in the 19th-20th-century wave known as nahḍah. The modern Arab interest in ancient Greek literature was stimulated both by the rampant “Hellenomania” of those years in Europe, and by the fact that the reception of the classics was deemed as a condition to be part of world literature. At the same time, the very assimilation of the category of “classics” led to the revivification of the Arab heritage, which included the translation and the re-elaboration of Greek knowledge chiefly during the Abbasid rule. However, in an unprecedented way compared to this medieval transmission, which had privileged philosophy and the sciences over other fields of study, Arab modernity was finally exposed to Greek literary production and, consequently, to its mythical heritage.
A vast literature has analysed the transmission of Greek knowledge to Arab culture. Most of this literature refers specifically to the Greek influence on Arab sciences and philosophy during the first centuries of Arab-Islamic history, with few references to literature. As for the modern literature, a few studies report parts of the debate on the reception of Greek culture during the nahḍah, the first translations of Greek literary works into Arabic, the reception of Greek myths in a few poets and playwrights of the first half of the 20th century. Much more attention has been given to poetic production since the 1950s.
However, all these studies do not address Greek mythology per se and, when they provide some references to it, they focus on the most mature phase of this reception, that is after the 1940s, when such myths had already been incorporated into the complex heritage that served as a source for Arabic literary creation. They therefore do not explain how, when, why, and which Greek myths made their way into Arabic literature, which one of the many meanings of the myth is conveyed by each text, and which is the impact of the extra-textual world on the re-configurations of the myths in each rewriting. In other words, they do not explain the process of building what Yaseen Noorani calls the “shared framework that […] allowed Greek poetic works to have prestige and meaning for Arabic readers”. According to the Egyptian classicist Ahmed Etman, it was precisely the absence of this framework that led to a failure in the understanding of the function of the myth in literature, and consequently to the neglect of the translation of works like the Iliad in the Middle Ages.
DIGIMYTH aims to explore the understudied period before 1950 and expand the corpus beyond the limits of poetry and canonical texts. As for the temporal framework of the project, DIGIMYTH has limited its research to the years ranging from 1850 to 1950 ca, that is to the period between the appearance of the first references to Greek mythology up to the political and cultural turning point of 1948 (nakbah). Inevitably, this temporal limit has led to a spatial one, because over the years taken into consideration the leading areas in cultural development were Egypt and the Mashreq. With regard to the nature of the corpus, it is certainly true that poetry was one of the most receptive fields for Greek myths, but it is also true that those penetrated even at an earlier stage through other channels and genres. This is why the project considers not only poetry before 1950, but also: lectures; translations; essays; encyclopaedic lemmas; journal articles; drama; school and university curricula.
The general objectives of DIGIMYTH are to investigate how, when and which Greek myths were introduced into modern Arabic literature and to evaluate their impact on its development. The project envisages two primary specific objective:
1. The identification of modern Arabic literary texts containing references to Greek myths. This entails the digitization and collection of these texts in an open access digital archive.
2. The understanding of the dynamics of the reception of Greek myths in modern Arabic literature. The project will carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected in the archive, resting on a methodology that mixes digital tools with literary, historical and religious studies.
In addition to these two primary objectives, DIGIMYTH aims at:
3. stimulating a debate in the academic field about the reception of Greek myths also in other non-European literatures and in other areas of study, chiefly literary, historical, and religious studies.
4. having an impact on civil society, stimulating a reflection on the concept of Greek mythology as a shared cultural heritage along the shores of the Mediterranean. Following the lines set up in the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage after the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, the project wants to highlight the relevance of this heritage in the intercultural dialogue between Europe and the Arab world.
A vast literature has analysed the transmission of Greek knowledge to Arab culture. Most of this literature refers specifically to the Greek influence on Arab sciences and philosophy during the first centuries of Arab-Islamic history, with few references to literature. As for the modern literature, a few studies report parts of the debate on the reception of Greek culture during the nahḍah, the first translations of Greek literary works into Arabic, the reception of Greek myths in a few poets and playwrights of the first half of the 20th century. Much more attention has been given to poetic production since the 1950s.
However, all these studies do not address Greek mythology per se and, when they provide some references to it, they focus on the most mature phase of this reception, that is after the 1940s, when such myths had already been incorporated into the complex heritage that served as a source for Arabic literary creation. They therefore do not explain how, when, why, and which Greek myths made their way into Arabic literature, which one of the many meanings of the myth is conveyed by each text, and which is the impact of the extra-textual world on the re-configurations of the myths in each rewriting. In other words, they do not explain the process of building what Yaseen Noorani calls the “shared framework that […] allowed Greek poetic works to have prestige and meaning for Arabic readers”. According to the Egyptian classicist Ahmed Etman, it was precisely the absence of this framework that led to a failure in the understanding of the function of the myth in literature, and consequently to the neglect of the translation of works like the Iliad in the Middle Ages.
DIGIMYTH aims to explore the understudied period before 1950 and expand the corpus beyond the limits of poetry and canonical texts. As for the temporal framework of the project, DIGIMYTH has limited its research to the years ranging from 1850 to 1950 ca, that is to the period between the appearance of the first references to Greek mythology up to the political and cultural turning point of 1948 (nakbah). Inevitably, this temporal limit has led to a spatial one, because over the years taken into consideration the leading areas in cultural development were Egypt and the Mashreq. With regard to the nature of the corpus, it is certainly true that poetry was one of the most receptive fields for Greek myths, but it is also true that those penetrated even at an earlier stage through other channels and genres. This is why the project considers not only poetry before 1950, but also: lectures; translations; essays; encyclopaedic lemmas; journal articles; drama; school and university curricula.
The general objectives of DIGIMYTH are to investigate how, when and which Greek myths were introduced into modern Arabic literature and to evaluate their impact on its development. The project envisages two primary specific objective:
1. The identification of modern Arabic literary texts containing references to Greek myths. This entails the digitization and collection of these texts in an open access digital archive.
2. The understanding of the dynamics of the reception of Greek myths in modern Arabic literature. The project will carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected in the archive, resting on a methodology that mixes digital tools with literary, historical and religious studies.
In addition to these two primary objectives, DIGIMYTH aims at:
3. stimulating a debate in the academic field about the reception of Greek myths also in other non-European literatures and in other areas of study, chiefly literary, historical, and religious studies.
4. having an impact on civil society, stimulating a reflection on the concept of Greek mythology as a shared cultural heritage along the shores of the Mediterranean. Following the lines set up in the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage after the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, the project wants to highlight the relevance of this heritage in the intercultural dialogue between Europe and the Arab world.
DIGIMYTH has made progress in achieving the following scientific objectives:
1. The first objective set in the Description of the Action (DoA) was to build an open access digital archive containing texts of Arabic literature with references to Greek myth. Thanks to the new skills and knowledge acquired during the first months of the research and in agreement with the supervisors, this objective was better articulated into:
a. The creation of a bibliographical database of texts on Greek myths and classics published between 1800 and 1950. Due to the volume of data, the database cannot be exhaustive but is an open and updatable database. Although the database brings together different types of texts, particular interest has been paid to cultural and literary journals as a fundamental platform for the study of this phenomenon. The progress of the work is advanced: the fellow has almost finished the compilation of the xls file; from this file the TEI xml file will originate, which will be used to put the database online.
b. The creation of a digital archive of selected texts related to Greek myth, digitised and digitally annotated. The digitisation of the texts is complete. By February 2025, the selection of relevant texts will be finalised, which will then be transcribed into TEI and annotated.
2. The second objective saw important progress as the project began to reconstruct some dynamics of the reception of Greek myths in Arabic literature. In particular, it resulted that the choice of myths and texts was a consequence of:
a. the contacts with text of ancient Greek literature since 19th Century, as a way to access Greek mythology;
b. the direct and indirect contacts with European, mostly French, texts and scholars;
c. the renewed global interest in the Greek classics and the weight of past Greek-Arabic interactions, especially in the Abbasid era;
d. the role of cultural and literary journals;
e. the efforts of individual intellectuals;
f. the place and time of reception;
g. the European historical and political conditions, the new archaeological findings, and the emerging Arab national sentiment.
3. The project has started to stimulate a debate both within and outside Arabic studies, especially within the field of classical studies.
4. The fourth objective has been only partially achieved, as communication of the project outside the academy was currently limited to the school world and a few MSCA info days open to the public.
1. The first objective set in the Description of the Action (DoA) was to build an open access digital archive containing texts of Arabic literature with references to Greek myth. Thanks to the new skills and knowledge acquired during the first months of the research and in agreement with the supervisors, this objective was better articulated into:
a. The creation of a bibliographical database of texts on Greek myths and classics published between 1800 and 1950. Due to the volume of data, the database cannot be exhaustive but is an open and updatable database. Although the database brings together different types of texts, particular interest has been paid to cultural and literary journals as a fundamental platform for the study of this phenomenon. The progress of the work is advanced: the fellow has almost finished the compilation of the xls file; from this file the TEI xml file will originate, which will be used to put the database online.
b. The creation of a digital archive of selected texts related to Greek myth, digitised and digitally annotated. The digitisation of the texts is complete. By February 2025, the selection of relevant texts will be finalised, which will then be transcribed into TEI and annotated.
2. The second objective saw important progress as the project began to reconstruct some dynamics of the reception of Greek myths in Arabic literature. In particular, it resulted that the choice of myths and texts was a consequence of:
a. the contacts with text of ancient Greek literature since 19th Century, as a way to access Greek mythology;
b. the direct and indirect contacts with European, mostly French, texts and scholars;
c. the renewed global interest in the Greek classics and the weight of past Greek-Arabic interactions, especially in the Abbasid era;
d. the role of cultural and literary journals;
e. the efforts of individual intellectuals;
f. the place and time of reception;
g. the European historical and political conditions, the new archaeological findings, and the emerging Arab national sentiment.
3. The project has started to stimulate a debate both within and outside Arabic studies, especially within the field of classical studies.
4. The fourth objective has been only partially achieved, as communication of the project outside the academy was currently limited to the school world and a few MSCA info days open to the public.
DIGIMYTH has contributed to the advancement of the state of the art in the following ways:
- It has explored a corpus largely neglected by existing studies, thereby illuminating a hitherto unknown or little-studied cultural and literary production. In this exploration, the work of perusing and collecting texts within cultural and literary journals has been significant, because periodicals have proved to be a very useful platform for understanding the dynamics of the reception of Greek myths in Arabic literature.
- Thanks to its digital expertise, DIGIMYTH is working on a bibliographic database and archive on Greek myths in Arabic literature. In the absence of catalogues or similar works, these platforms will be a useful source of study and information for scholars and all those interested in the phenomenon.
- Through the integration of comparative studies and historical-religious studies, DIGIMYTH offers a new perspective on the study of the reception of Greek myths in Arabic literature, looking at it both through comparison with similar cases of classical receptions in Europe and the world, and in the light of the historical context in which it took place.
- It has explored a corpus largely neglected by existing studies, thereby illuminating a hitherto unknown or little-studied cultural and literary production. In this exploration, the work of perusing and collecting texts within cultural and literary journals has been significant, because periodicals have proved to be a very useful platform for understanding the dynamics of the reception of Greek myths in Arabic literature.
- Thanks to its digital expertise, DIGIMYTH is working on a bibliographic database and archive on Greek myths in Arabic literature. In the absence of catalogues or similar works, these platforms will be a useful source of study and information for scholars and all those interested in the phenomenon.
- Through the integration of comparative studies and historical-religious studies, DIGIMYTH offers a new perspective on the study of the reception of Greek myths in Arabic literature, looking at it both through comparison with similar cases of classical receptions in Europe and the world, and in the light of the historical context in which it took place.