Why should you believe me?
Relations between authorship and
authority in ancient historiography
and in the post-modern world
Newton International Fellowship
2018-2020
​
Funded by
EVENTS
Autoria e autoridade na historiografia: modelos antigos, dilemas modernos
Universidade de São Paulo
July 11-12, 2019
O início do século XXI vê um forte questionamento da autoridade dos intelectuais e do conhecimento gerado na academia, em prol de uma ampla e inédita abertura de acesso à informação que tem favorecido, ainda que inadvertidamente, discursos políticos radicais e tendências totalitárias de governo. O estudo da escrita da história na Antiguidade não pode se furtar ao debate sobre esse problema, já que os historiadores antigos são ainda pensados como modelos não só da "civilização ocidental", como também dos paradigmas para se narrar a verdade que são reafirmados ou desconstruídos na modernidade. O que basta ao autor na historiografia antiga para estabelecer a autoridade da sua narrativa? Como seu público entende - ou questiona - o peso dessa autoridade pessoal? Qual é o papel da retórica nessa relação, mas também das relações sociais entre autor, ou sua imagem, e sua audiência? E como se dá a historicidade e a recepção desse processo?
Esta conferência tem como objetivo questionar a posição do legado da historiografia antiga em um mundo onde a verdade se questiona pela manipulação do algoritmo e as fake news estão na ordem do dia.
Authorship and authority in historiography: ancient models, modern dilemmas
​
The beginning of the 21st century has witnessed a strong questioning of the authority of intellectuals and of academy-generated knowledge. Instead, the unprecedented access to information has favored, albeit inadvertently, from radical discourses to totalitarian tendencies of government. The study of history writing in antiquity is not separate from this issue, since ancient historians are still thought of as models not only of "Western civilization" but also of truth-telling paradigms that are reaffirmed or deconstructed in modernity. What is sufficient for the author in ancient historiography to establish the authority of his narrative? How does his audience understand - or question - the weight of this personal authority? What is the role of rhetoric in this relationship, but also of the social relations between author, or his image, and his audience? And how does the historicity and reception of this process take place?
This conference aims to reframe the legacy of ancient historiography in a world where truth is questioned by algorithm manipulations and fake news are the order of the day.
> Watch
Authority and Contemporary Narratives about the Classics
School of History, Classics and Archaeology - Newcastle University
February 21-22, 2019
The current boom of works and media about the Ancient World aimed for a general audience is a product of some converging circumstances: the rethinking of meaning and value of the Classics among scholars, in need of justifying our very own existence in contemporary academia; a market-driven demand for either recalling western tradition and exempla from the ancients – on the conservative side, or questioning the multiple facets of elite privilege – on a progressive approach; and ultimately as a consequence of the “explosion of information” in the hyper-connected XXI century. In this last regard, narratives from non-scholars ranging from fairly accurate Wikipedia articles to “fake news” tweets are now competing with classicists for space and authority.
This new “shared authority”, a term coined by public historian Michael Frisch, calls for reflection. We invite papers on topics related to the topics above, inviting discussion on themes such as:
-
What is the role of the scholar in determining narratives for the general audience?
-
How to understand and respond to the public’s demand on topics, old and new, about the ancients?
-
Forms of dialogue with non-scholar producers of knowledge about the Classics, esp. online;
-
Political and global aspects of conservative and progressive approaches to Ancient World.
