Dr Karen Ni-Mheallaigh
Lecturer
Extension: 4491
Telephone: 01392 724491
My current research focuses on the concept and theory of fiction in antiquity, particularly the development of an understanding of the contractual basis of fiction during the Roman Imperial period. I am especially interested in excavating a theory of fiction that is implicit in ancient texts, for which the strongly metafictional work of the second century AD Greek writer Lucian is a particularly fruitful case-study.
I am very interested in the ancient novels, the ancient reception of Plato and Homer, especially Homeric revisionist fiction – texts which claim to ‘rewrite’ the Homeric account of the Trojan war, with varying degrees of irony… I am also fascinated by literature’s awareness of its own textuality, especially the paratext, the playful creation of pseudo-texts (pseudo-documentarism) and pseudo-hypotexts, as well as 'book'-culture in antiquity more broadly. I welcome inquiries about research in these areas.
I teach Ancient Greek and Latin language, as well as modules on the literature of the ancient world, including Greek and Roman Narrative, and Ancient Novels. I have regularly taught on theJ.A.C.T. Greek Summer School which takes place in the wonderful setting of Bryanston School, Dorset (http://www.jact.org/events/summerschools.htm).
I am on the editorial board for the sixth-form Classics journal, Omnibus (http://www.jact.org/publications/currentissue.htm), and I am a council member of the Classical Association, the largest subject organization for Classics in the U.K. I am an associate member of Kyknos, the Swansea and Lampeter Centre for Research of the Narrative Literatures of the Ancient World (http://www.kyknos.org.uk).
With Matthew Wright, I co-organised a conference, Irony and the Ironic in Classical Literature, which took place at Exeter September 1st-4th 2009.
Monograph
The world of the reader, the world of the book: reading fiction in the ancient world, in preparation.
Published articles
‘Pseudo-documentarism and the limits of ancient fiction,’ American Journal of Philology 129.3 (2008), 403-431.
‘Philosophical framing: the Phaedran setting of Leucippe and Clitophon,’ in J.R. Morgan & M. Jones (edd.), Philosophical Presences in the Ancient Novel, Ancient Narrative Supplementum 10. (Groningen, 2007), 231-244. Also online (subscription required) at: http://www.ancientnarrative.com/archive/antocsup10.htm
“Plato alone was not there…”: Platonic presences in Lucian,’ Hermathena 179 (2005): pp. 89-103.
Forthcoming Articles
‘The game of the name: onymity and the contract of reading in Lucian,’ in F. Mestre & P. Gomez (edd.), Lucian of Samosata: Greek writer and Roman citizen, Barcelona.
‘Monumental fallacy: the teleology of origins in Lucian’s Verae Historiae,’ in A. Bartley (ed.), Lucian in his World, Cambridge.
'Ec[h]oing the ass-novel: reading and desire in Onos, Metamorphoses and The Name of the Rose,' Ramus.
Book Reviews
Cueva, E.P., The myths of fiction. Studies in the Canonical Greek Novels. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2004. Classical Review 56.2.
O’Neil, E.N., Plutarch: Moralia XVI. Index. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2004. Classical Review 56.2.
Barabino, A. (ed.), Luciano: La morte di Peregrino. Introduzione di F. Montanari. Milan: Oscar Mondadori, 2003. Classical Review 55.1.
Recent Academic Presentations
'Ironizing the quest for origins in Lucian's Verae Historiae,' Irony and the Ironic in Classical Literature, Exeter (September 2009).
'The lunatic fringe? Greeks and Romans on extra-terrestrial life,' Trips to the Moon and Beyond: Lucian to NASA, Royal Holloway, London (December 2008).
‘ “Homer” on truth, lies and fiction,’ Lies and Metafiction in the Ancient World Kyknos, Gregynog (July 2007).
‘Lucian on the Author,’ Lucian in his World. University of Kent, Canterbury (March 2007).
‘The game of the name: onymity and fictionality in Lucian.’
International conference on Lucian of Samosata, Lucian of Samosata, Greek Writer and Roman Citizen, University of Barcelona,16-18 Nov. 2006.
