Antike und Identität

There is currently a fierce debate about the discipline of Classics and the place of Greco-Roman antiquity in the present. While the advocates of identity politics especially in the US and the UK see the need to decolonize Classics, scholars in Germany and other European countries continue to turn to antiquity in search of the roots of their cultural identity. Jonas Grethlein shows that both positions are firmly embedded in different sociopolitical contexts and argues that in both cases the category of identity is less than helpful. It either narrows down antiquity narcissistically or overtaxes it normatively. Ancient Greek and Roman texts have lost their canonical status, and yet their reflexivity invites us to make them fruitful for a better understanding of the present.

Geboren 1978; 1997-2002 Studium in Göttingen, Oxford und Freiburg; 2002 Promotion; 2003 Emmy-Noether-Programm; 2005 Habilitation; 2007 Assistant Professor an der University of California, Santa Barbara; seit 2008 Professor in Heidelberg; 2013-18 ERC Starting Grant; seit 2021 ordentliches Mitglied der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften.