Introductory Lecture
The Introductory lecture outlines the key questions posed by the course, the principal phenomena or “objects” from within the “Classical” World (Ancient Greek and Roman history and culture) whose “receptions” in the modern and digital worlds will receive attention in the course, as well as the primary modern pre-digital and digital media involved in these receptions.
The importance of medium specificity is then emphasized by examining Marshall McLuhan’s dictum that “the medium is the message.” Given this course examines the reception of the Classical World in “Digital” popular culture, the lecture then engages with the definition of the term “digital,” and offers a brief history of how late 20th- and 21st-Century culture came to be dominated by “the digital.” Finally, a brief account of the medium specificity of film (analogue and digital) introduces the dominant – but by no means only – material that will feature in Modules 1-4.
The lecture emphasizes that one cannot focus only on “digital” receptions, because a grasp of both the ancient material and modern pre-digital receptions is essential to a fuller understanding of the reception of the Classical World in digital popular culture.
Recommended Readings
- McLuhan, Marshall. “The Medium is the Message.” In McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Critical Edition, edited by W. Terence Gordon. Ginko Press, 1994 (1964), pp.17-36.
- Paul, Joanna. “Working with Film: Theories and Methodologies.” In Hardwick, Lorna & Christopher Stray. A Companion to Classical Receptions. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, pp.303-314.