Welcome Address from Efstathia Athanasopoulou
Writing this (short?) note I would like to welcome you all to Jocasta, a multilateral research project on Classical Reception in Patras, Greece. Jocasta was created in, by and for the class as a paradigmatic locus of dialogue where all ideas are tested and challenged, embraced and contested. For us Classical Reception is not merely a subfield of Classics but a mode of historicised inquiry of antiquity based on a plurality of perspectives which promotes self-awareness. Such a critical reading of Classics in relation to class is portrayed in a clip from the French film, recipient– among other awards–of the Palme d’Or in 2008, The Class (Entre les Murs). In the clip, the teacher asks students what they have learnt by the end of the school year only to be surprised by a student’s answer which can be conceived as an instantiation of what classical reception means to us.
Entre Les Murs (2008)-Plato’s Republic
Thus Classical Reception Research stems from dialogue with the self and others and is based on an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas in either a certain locus or on a deterritorialised network. People at the UCL Train and Engage Scheme taught us that it is not important to have an idea; everybody has interesting ideas. The important thing is to make ideas happen and that presupposes people sharing and debating ideas. And this is all what Jocasta is and–we hope to–be about.
At this point, I would like to thank Efimia Karakantza for the endless coffees, emails and telephone conversations from Spring onwards but most importantly to express my gratitude for her open-mindedness, constant supportiveness and trust. I would like to say many thanks to students with whom we have discussed Classical Reception in the classroom. Finally this project could not be realised without the extraordinary Jocasta team of hard-working and dedicated people from different backgrounds, who were always there at every single step of the process: Alexandros, Marietta, Andreas, Gesthimani, Dimitra, Chrysanthi and Aspasia.
One single phrase as epilogue and starting point for our Jocasta: # Learning is Sharing