Lilah Grace Canevaro

My research centres on archaic Greek poetry, epic and didactic in particular.
I am interested in the modes of reading which ancient poetry invites, and try in my research to track such readings from the invitation (through close reading of the poems themselves) to the response to it (the reception of the poems).
In much of my research I make connections between Greek literature and other cultures and time periods, a particular interest being Victorian poetry and art.
I draw on comparative and reception methodologies, and am starting to explore ways in which the cognitive sciences can be brought to bear on archaic Greek poetry.
My 2018 book, Women of Substance in Homeric Epic: Objects, Gender, Agency, explores the relationship between women and objects in Homeric epic, drawing on the theoretical framework of New Materialisms. Through ‘attentiveness to things’ (term from Vital Materialist Jane Bennett), this project provides a new way in to archaic texts, revealing that Homer’s women are not only objectified but are also well-versed in objects and their potential as devices for memory, for communication, for symbolism, for empowerment. Female strategies of agency may not be placed centre-stage, but they are nevertheless a creation of the archaic poet, and an impressively subtle and nuanced one at that. The ostensible masculinity of the Iliad, for example, belies a sensitivity to the female viewpoint

Individual

Lecturer in Greek; Classics

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