Project

The Rhetoric of Democracy. Elites and Popular Power in Second Sophistic Literature

Code
01N01514
Duration
01 January 2014 → 31 January 2019
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Humanities and the arts
    • History
    • Language studies
    • Literary studies
    • Theory and methodology of language studies
    • Theory and methodology of linguistics
    • Theory and methodology of literary studies
    • Other languages and literary studies
Keywords
New Historicism Greek literature ancient rhetoric History Literary studies
 
Project description

A literary-rhetorical analysis of speeches, essays and biographies from the Second Sophistic (50-250 AD) will test the hypothesis that democratic elements in politics in Greek cities continued to exist under Roman imperial rule. This hypothesis challenges a long-standing and influential common opinion among both literary scholars and ancient

historians. The methodology combines ancient rhetoric and New Historicism.