Johanna Akujärvi | Lund University (original) (raw)
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Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart)
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Papers by Johanna Akujärvi
The genre of the Periegesis is problematic, irrespective of whether it is brought into a generic ... more The genre of the Periegesis is problematic, irrespective of whether it is brought into a generic category together with other works or is assumed to be sui generis. This paper argues that temporarily abandoning the scholarly habit of reading texts synoptically rather than subjecting oneself to one of the most fundamental characteristics of any text, viz. its linearity, may bring new light to the problem of the genre of the Periegesis. At the very beginning of the Periegesis there are strong generic signals pointing to definite generic affiliations. Though slightly modified later, these generic ties established at an early stage continue to play an active part in the structuring of the text.
Pausanias’ Hellados Periegesis has proven to be difficult to group with other ancient works, whet... more Pausanias’ Hellados Periegesis has proven to be difficult to group with other ancient works, whether preserved or not. In light of its highly varied subject matter, it is tempting to sort Pausanias together with other authors of miscellanies from the second century AD, like Aelian and Athenaeus. Like the Deipnosophistae and the Varia historia among other works, the Periegesis is a collection of facts, pieces of information and curiosities on various objects and subjects. But it differs in its manner of presenting its material. Pausanias avoids the appearance of random ordering and selecting of the material by creating a ubiquitous yet unobtrusive frame narrative with a strong organising nucleus: a narrative of a tour to the sites and sights of Greece. Obviously, travel normally moves linearly from point A to Z via points B, C, D etc. So does the travel narrated in the Periegesis. The frame narrative provides the work with a topographical thread along which the sites and sights of Greece are noted, and the stories that these elicit, or rather: appear to elicit, are told. However, in the scholarship on the Periegesis only one part of the frame (narrative) of the Periegesis is commonly recognised, viz. the topographical thread, which is a secondary aspect of the frame. The frame narrative itself tends to be overlooked. Though elusive and unobtrusive, the frame narrative of the Periegesis is worth studying. In it we encounter the narrative of a travel through Greece undertaken (mostly) by an impersonal, indefinite travelling persona. This aspect of the frame is indebted to the Periploi. More importantly, in the frame narrative there are numerous first-person statements in which the author-narrator comments on various aspects of the material and on his labour prior to and associated with constructing the text. In the end, the authorial voice comes across as strongly influenced by Herodotean historiography. In this paper I propose to examine the gradual development of the interplay between the ‘I’ and the traveller in the frame narrative, and the place of the Herodotean authorial voice within this peripluic narrative frame. (Less)
BRILL eBooks, Nov 13, 2020
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender, Sep 18, 2017
The genre of the Periegesis is problematic, irrespective of whether it is brought into a generic ... more The genre of the Periegesis is problematic, irrespective of whether it is brought into a generic category together with other works or is assumed to be sui generis. This paper argues that temporarily abandoning the scholarly habit of reading texts synoptically rather than subjecting oneself to one of the most fundamental characteristics of any text, viz. its linearity, may bring new light to the problem of the genre of the Periegesis. At the very beginning of the Periegesis there are strong generic signals pointing to definite generic affiliations. Though slightly modified later, these generic ties established at an early stage continue to play an active part in the structuring of the text.
Pausanias’ Hellados Periegesis has proven to be difficult to group with other ancient works, whet... more Pausanias’ Hellados Periegesis has proven to be difficult to group with other ancient works, whether preserved or not. In light of its highly varied subject matter, it is tempting to sort Pausanias together with other authors of miscellanies from the second century AD, like Aelian and Athenaeus. Like the Deipnosophistae and the Varia historia among other works, the Periegesis is a collection of facts, pieces of information and curiosities on various objects and subjects. But it differs in its manner of presenting its material. Pausanias avoids the appearance of random ordering and selecting of the material by creating a ubiquitous yet unobtrusive frame narrative with a strong organising nucleus: a narrative of a tour to the sites and sights of Greece. Obviously, travel normally moves linearly from point A to Z via points B, C, D etc. So does the travel narrated in the Periegesis. The frame narrative provides the work with a topographical thread along which the sites and sights of Greece are noted, and the stories that these elicit, or rather: appear to elicit, are told. However, in the scholarship on the Periegesis only one part of the frame (narrative) of the Periegesis is commonly recognised, viz. the topographical thread, which is a secondary aspect of the frame. The frame narrative itself tends to be overlooked. Though elusive and unobtrusive, the frame narrative of the Periegesis is worth studying. In it we encounter the narrative of a travel through Greece undertaken (mostly) by an impersonal, indefinite travelling persona. This aspect of the frame is indebted to the Periploi. More importantly, in the frame narrative there are numerous first-person statements in which the author-narrator comments on various aspects of the material and on his labour prior to and associated with constructing the text. In the end, the authorial voice comes across as strongly influenced by Herodotean historiography. In this paper I propose to examine the gradual development of the interplay between the ‘I’ and the traveller in the frame narrative, and the place of the Herodotean authorial voice within this peripluic narrative frame. (Less)
BRILL eBooks, Nov 13, 2020
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender, Sep 18, 2017
Reading, Writing, Translating: Greek in Early Modern Schools, Universities, and beyond, 2024
This volume collects eleven studies that investigate different aspects of the teaching and learni... more This volume collects eleven studies that investigate different aspects of the teaching and learning of Greek in early modern northern Europe (c. 1500–1750), from France in the west to Lithuania in the east. They give important insights that advance our understanding of the homogeneity despite diversity in the complex developments of classical reception, the study of Greek, its significance, and the practice of Greek in the various religious, cultural, and socio-political environments of the complicated spatio-temporal and geopolitical realities of Europe.