Eos
A Scholarly Society Dedicated to Africana Receptions of Ancient Greece and Rome

READS

READS introduces Classicists to seminal works from the African diaspora so that they may be incorporated into course curricula. Each year READS features one work or a related set of texts for discussion at the invitation of institutions and as recurring programming at national and regional conferences.

 

2018: Gwendolyn Brooks' 'The Anniad'

 
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‘The Anniad’ is a poem from Gwendolyn Brook’s Pulitzer Prize winning collection, Annie Allen. The title puns on the main character’s name and Vergil’s Aeneid. The poem itself chronicles the life, self-conception, and desires of an African-American woman in light of war and anti-Black racism. Brooks’ complex legacy, including her connection to the Euro-American canon and the reception of her work in different waves of African-American literary studies, can help us examine many aspects of Classical reception, from direct allusion and formal technique to the politics of canonicity.

In 2018-2019, Eos hosted discussions of this poem at the annual meetings of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States and the Classical Association of New England and at the University of Kentucky’s Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Conference.

READS, CONFERENCEEos: Africana Receptions of Ancient Greece and Romepoetry, epic, African-American literature, Black Arts Movement, colorism