CFP: Revisiting Antiquity in Modern European Literature and the Arts Athens, Friday, 20 February 2026

[Angeliki Spiropoulou]

Dear colleagues,

please consider participating in the following symposium. It will be a pleasure to welcome you.

Please feel free to forward the CFP to relevant lists and whomever may be interested.

Αpologies for crossposting.

Thank you and best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Dr Angeliki Spiropoulou (MA, PhD Sussex)
Professor, University of the Peloponnese, Dep. of Theatre Studies, School of Arts,
Director of the MA in Creative Writing, Theatre and Culture Industries
Executive Committee Member of ESCL,
email: asp...@uop.gr

_______________________________
The European Society of Comparative Literary Studies (ESCLS) announces the one-day Symposium in collaboration with the MA Programme
'Creative Writing, Theatre and Culture Industries', University of the Peloponnese

'REVISITING ANTIQUITY IN MODERN EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND THE ARTS'
Athens, Friday, 20 February 2026
at The National Library of Athens at Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.snfcc.org/en/snfcc/national-library-of-greece/__;!!CzAuKJ42GuquVTTmVmPViYEvSg!Iqo5EpIVt2KqoVlidZU2otwhA4huS8O-P7-3cTS7GChngAUJeUpq3xtu-Zv0yDR3e1BlGOHfkBFhrIE7wUwbWm55uuA$


Call for Participation

Antiquity and modernity are mutually defined by their constructed antithesis. However, modern European literature and the arts --from theatre and cinema to fine arts, architecture, music to the performing arts -- extensively resonate ideas, images and other aspects of antiquity in general and of specific antiquities, such as Chinese, Greek, Roman antiquities and beyond.

The symposium seeks to revisit influences of antiquity on modern European arts by extending the scope of antiquity to include all ancient cultures and traditions, and by seeking to explore different shades of antiquities' formative resilience in modern artistic discourses and practices. Ancient myths, religious practices, artworks and artists are particularly relevant to the proposed revisiting which may concern European art from the Renaissance to the present, and study the variation of antiquity's effects on modern European art traditions which reclaimed or opposed it in diverse and contradictory ways.

Indicative themes:
• Modern and contemporary reception of ancient art, artists, historical personages, events, myths and rituals in European literature as well as the visual and performing arts
• Representations of antiquity (Western and non Western) in European literature and the arts
• Evocations of antiquity in the creation of modern and contemporary literary and artistic canons
• Rewritings and Adaptations of ancient classics in modern literature and the arts
• Antiquity and colonialism
• Antiquity and resistance
• Political employment and/or reoccupation of terms and traditions connected with antiquity
• Thinking Anew the Ancient and the Modern/Contemporary

Participation
You are invited to participate by giving a 15’-20'-long paper but there are also other participation formats, such as seminars where participants are asked to contribute their thoughts on a one of the above-mentioned subjects for 10’ or just participate the discussion that follows as a registered participant.
You are invited to submit the title of your proposed contribution together with and a Bionote (100 words) by 25 January 2026 to: asp...@uop.gr typing the title: "Revisiting Antiquity".

Please note that the symposium participation is free of participation fees but travel, accommodation and possible dinner expenses are self-funded.

Info about travel and accommodation in Athens will be released soon.
Organiser: Angeliki Spiropoulou, Professor, University of the Peloponnese, Dep. of Theatre Studies, School of Arts, Director of the MA in Creative Writing, Theatre and the Arts, EC Member of ESCL, asp...@uop.gr