Literary Cultures & Receptions of the Ancient World

We explore the use of texts for communication of socio-cultural agendas and identities, as well as the significance of paratexts and literary materiality.

About this group

The spectrum of our research expertise ranges from Ancient Egypt and Classical Greece to Late Antiquity. Our expertise focuses on Greco-Roman literature from the first to the third century CE, the rhetoric of Egyptian literature of the Middle Kingdom, priestly texts from Greco-Roman Egypt, representations of power and ethnicity in classical Greek historiography, anonymous Greek poetry in the Roman Empire, Latin poetry of the imperial era, praise and panegyric in the Roman Empire, intellectual practices of the Second Sophistic (Plutarch, Aelius Aristides, Athenaeus, Pollux) and literary representations of written culture and gardens.

Our investigations into the later cultural, social and political significance of Classical antiquity arise organically from research specialisms in Greek and Roman literature and society. We share a focus on the transition and transformation of ancient texts, images, artefacts, narratives and ideas into new forms and contexts. Archaeology features prominently in projects around Liverpool’s museum history and historical landscapes, situating our research within the University’s Heritage theme.

We collaborate closely with the University’s Eighteenth-Century Worlds research group and the Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.