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Call for papers:

Representing self-transformation and conversion in literature of the Roman world

King’s College, London

29th/30th June 2015

Organisers: William Fitzgerald (KCL) and Catharine Edwards (Birkbeck)

Augustine’s Confessions recounts his own conversion to Christianity, rehearsing the incremental power of repeated spiritual exercises and offering his own experience as a model for others.  The Confessions is often heralded as a pivotal moment in the history of conceptions of the self, and the notion of conversion has played an important (though not uncontroversial) role in distinguishing between Christian and Pagan religion. Yet accounts of, recipes for and enactments of inner transformation, conversion and changes of life are articulated, in very diverse ways, by a number of earlier Roman authors (several of whom were very familiar to Augustine). Does the concept of conversion have value as a way not only to link or distinguish pagan and Christian but also to make connections between classical texts? Philosophical texts and satire urge reformation, and castigate procrastination; love elegy describes the beginning of a new life; Ovid articulates involuntary transformations and Apuleius writes what some have seen as a narrative of conversion.

This two-day conference will explore textual engagements with self-transformation and conversion in literature of the Roman world up to the time of Augustine. What role might texts themselves play in imagined trajectories of self-transformation or conversion? What language, metaphors and rhetoric are used to turn readers, or listeners, in new directions or see the world in a new light? What might be at stake in these texts in terms of conceptions of the self and its relation to the social or cultural environment? Speakers might wish to focus on the conversion narrative of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses or the guide to becoming a better Stoic offered by Seneca’s Epistulae morales. But there is scope, too, to discuss the relevance of ideas of self-transformation and conversion to authors as diverse as Lucretius, the love elegists, and the Ovid of the Metamorphoses.

Confirmed speakers so far include: Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer, Alex Dressler, Chris Gill, Kurt Lampe, Michael Trapp.

We are now inviting others who wish to speak to send an abstract of c.500 words by the 30th November 2014 to:

William.Fitzgerald@kcl.ac.uk

C.Edwards@bbk.ac.uk

Professor of Classics & Ancient History,