There's a look that passes over another person's face when you announce that you study things like Classics, Latin, or Greek. Especially if they are not familiar with the humanities, and sometimes even if they are, they question the relevance of such topics in a digital age. Somehow, they are surprised when they hear that Classics has ridden the digital wave from early on, and that the electronic materials available to a student of the Classics vary as much as they do.
My standing question for this course turns to the texts, the very literature I study, either in its original language or in translation. How does the availability of these works add to the conversation of literary criticism and interpretation? I suppose that, from an academic standpoint, I should also ask, how does criticism differ from interpretation? Is it simply a matter of the medium used, whether prose, poetry, painting, sculpture, music, dance, or acting? Are there media in that list that I have missed, perhaps that have yet to be invented?
It may be a difficult task, certainly one that will last a lifetime, but I want to see what I can dig up about the reception of Classics on the Internet.
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