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Presentations

Calling the Muses to Oklahoma: Native North American Writing on Greco-Roman Antiquity

Wednesday, September 25th, 2019
Craig Williams
12:00pm

Center for Advanced Study
Levis Faculty Center--Music Room (208)
919 W. Illinois, Urbana

Event Description

There is a fascinating but little known history of Native North American writing on the classical cultures of Europe: in poetry, novels, short stories, essays, letters, and other genres from the seventeenth century to today, Native writers have been using the history, mythology, literature, and languages of ancient Greece and Rome to a variety of effects. Generation after generation, they have written precisely as indigenous writers in a colonial situation, highlighting their Native identity and making use of the settler-colonists' prestigious antiquity as they participate in what has been called survivance. In this presentation Professor Williams will provide a selective overview of this tradition, highlighting a few recurring themes and suggesting some interpretive frameworks.

Craig Williams

Department of Classics, Associate 2017-18