How often do you think about the Roman Empire?
Humanities Core invites you to our first Friday Forum of the year. In tandem with her lectures on the Classical world, Professor Zina Giannopoulou will present a talk on “Vergil and Imperial Worldbuilding.” How do you inspire hope for a better future in the throes of a civil war? Can the birth of a child augur an empire’s longevity? Can religion and literature come together? Is it possible for biological and historical time to converge? What is the desire for a Golden Age all about? This talk looks to the Romans for answers to these and other related questions about the ways in which poetry can breed imperial fantasies of eternal rule.
Zina Giannopoulou is an Associate Professor of Classics and an affiliate of European Languages and Studies at UC Irvine. Her research interests lie at the intersection of philosophy and literature, and include critical theory and comparative classicisms in literature, film, and the visual arts.
Image: the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, photographed by Audley Travel