'For Time is / nothing if not amenable' — exemplarity, time, reception. (3rd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Güthenke, Constanze
• Is Part Of: Classical receptions journal. Volume 12:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 46
• Page End: 61
• Publication Date: 2020-01-03
• Subjects: Civilization, Classical -- Periodicals; Classical literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Philosophy, Ancient -- Periodicals; Classical antiquities -- Periodicals; 880.09
• DOI: 10.1093/crj/clz025
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1759-5134

Abstract

Abstract: This article revisits exemplarity as a strategy of approaching, reading, and using the past. By going beyond treating it mostly as a historical phenomenon, in terms of its use as a purely pre-modern rhetorical trope connected to historical and ethical writings in the Greek and Roman world, I suggest that exemplarity has critical potential to make us reconsider its ability to break through temporalities in a calculated and sceptical way. As such, it offers a provocation to Reception Studies to engage with exemplarity both in and as a more deliberate and strategic manner.