ONLINE Conference 2023
[Via Zoom. Link Sessions will be announced in Jannuary 2023]
Cover Design by @BorjaAntela 2004
323 BC is a well-known date for everyone interested in Antiquity. It marks, of course, the death of the great Alexander, and in some way, despite probable discussion, the beginning of the Hellenistic age.
During the last four decades, studies on Alexander have been published on almost any journal dedicated to Classics and Ancient History. A overwellming collection of topics, themes and approaches obligates every scholar on Alexander to review in deep any inch of piece of the short amount of information we have on Alexander.
Indeed, 2023 can be considered as a date to celebrate a commemoration of the fake centenary of Alexander’s death. In order to celebrate, after all, life and research, let me offer a first event on this ‘centenary’, focusing our attention to the representations, types and forms, of Alexander’s widr Reception, from antiquity to our own times of screens and digital media.
During the days of Jannuary 2023, 23rd to 25th, an Online Meeting will be conducted Worldwide, via Zoom, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), in order to share and discuss the many different faces (and the common features too) of the image and representation of Alexander the Great in Art, Literature and Paintings, from ancient mosaics and stone portrait to comic, manga, animé, novels, tv series, toons, etc., from classic art to pop art and beyond.
Some different efforts to embrace the complex tradition of the many features of Alexander the great beyond History have been recently published (i.e., the books of F. j. Gómez Espelosín, ‘En busca de Alejandro. Historia de una Obsesión’, in 2016, and Pierre Briant, ‘Alexandre: Exégèse des lieux communs’, in 2016, the chapters in K. Moore’s ‘Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great’, in 2018, or the book ‘Alejandro en las pantallas’, by O. LaPeña and myself, published in late 2020, among others), but these previous research barely sketched some topics, and reading them one can only wish to go deep and in a wide way for more study cases, approaches, and cross perspectives.
This will be the starting point of the commemorative cellebration worldwide of the ‘Year Alexander 2023’, with a lot of events to be announced soon (including a conference – a in-person meeting- on new perspectives on Alexander, in Madrid, to be announced soon with a call, for June 2023, among many other events and activities).
Forever Alexander ONLINE CONFERENCE 23-25 Jannuary 2023
23-25 Jannuary 2023
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January 23rd
Welcome and Introductory remarks by the Organizers:
Borja Antela-Bernárdez & Marc Mendoza.
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Inaugural Conference:
Olga Palagia (National & Kapodrisian University of Athens): Painted images of Alexander in antiquity
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Session 01 – Ancient Reception
Megan Finlayson (University of Durham): Neos Alexandros: Imitation and Innovation of Alexander’s Portrait in the Coinage of Demetrios Poliorcetes
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Irene Pajón Leyra (Universidad de Sevilla): A Donkey’s Horn for Alexander. Contextualizing the Epigram App.Anth. 99.
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François Santoni (Université de Corse): Alexander the Great on Roman coins.
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Stefano Acerbo (Universidad de Sevilla): A New Mythical Geography: Echoes of Alexander’s expedition in Imperial Mythography
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Giustina Monti (University of Lincoln): Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most Alexander-like among us all?” – “Not you, Caligula”.
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Discussion.
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Session 02 – Alexander and the Medieval Reception
Claudia Daniotti (The University of Warwick): Unfabling Alexander (?): The Depiction of the Macedonian Conqueror in Late Medieval to Early Modern Italian Art
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Doug Braun (Cornell University): For the Sake of Boukephalas: Boukephalas and Alexander in Classical Text and Art
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Discussion.
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THE MAKING OF A MYTH. A BRITISH LIBRARY’S EXHIBITION
Peter Toth (British Library) & Guendalina D. M. Taietti (University of Liverpool): Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth. A British Library’s Exhibition.
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January 24th
Reception
Keynote Speaker
Christian T. Djurslev (Aarhus University): Alexander in heavy metal music: a palinode
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Session 03 – Playing with Alexander
Guendalina D. M. Taietti (University of Liverpool): Alexander the Great in Nana Nikolaou’s children’s play: What’s it like to be Greek
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Mario Agudo Villanueva (Karanos BAMS): Alejandro de cartón: juegos de mesa de simulación histórica
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Alex MacFarlane (University of Birmingham, UK): Alexander the Great and Ancient Aliens: How the Assassin’s Creed Franchise Influences Popular Perceptions of Historical Figures
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Discussion
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Session 04 – Alexander in Japan
DUE TO COPYRIGHT REQUESTS, this session can not be uploaded.
Lilli Hölzlhammer (Uppsala Universitet): Who is the Alexander we stan? The Alexander of the Japanese Fate-Franchise and his global fandom on Archive of Our Own
Ayelet Peer (Bar Ilan University): Alexander the Shogun: representations of the Macedonian conqueror in Japanese anime
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Discussion
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FROM HISTORY TO STORY. A MEETING OF AUTHORS AND HISTORIANS [ROUNDTABLE]
Roundtable: From History to Story: six authors share their process writing Alexander“. Kate Elliott, Jo Graham, Scott Oden, Melissa Scott, and Jeanne Reames (moderator).
Handout (Authors’ bios) available: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mCKPZiCSxllMseTIjtIrrMXDqKiC6D3r/view?usp=sharing
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January 25th
Reception
Keynote Speaker:
Antonia Risquez Madrid (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona): Alejandro, héroe épico: el Alexandreis de Gautier de Châtillon
Handout: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aahvrqe_cFGah3n13sIPy8cWTLo4dSux/view?usp=sharing
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Session 05 – Conqueror of Worlds and Words
Caterina Franchi (University of Bologna): Apocalypse Then: the imaginary apocalyptic in the Alexander Romance and its reception in Modern culture
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Aleksandra Kleczar (Uniwersytet Jagielloński): Alexander, the king of the Jews
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Ekaterine Kobakhidze (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University) & Giorgi Ugulava (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University): Alexander the Great in Georgian Literature and Folklore.
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Discussion
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Agnieszka Fulinska (Jagiellonian University): Chateaubriand’s Alexander-Napoleon.
Vasiliki (Vassilina) Avramidi (Università di Bologna): Alexander the Great and Europe: intriguingly captivating, rich in contradiction
[UNABLE TO ATTEND]
J. Roisman (Colby College): Alexander in Kafka’s and Capek’s stories
Discussion & Closing Remarks
End of Conference.
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