Synopsis

This Research Focus Area was established in 2015 by combining the fields of Ancient Languages and Cultures that was previously spread over the Potchefstroom and Vaal Triangle Campuses. In the process researchers investigating the fields of Latin, Greek and Semitic Languages (including Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian and others) joined forces.

 

Research Sub Programmes

  • Textual Studies: Languages and literatures from the Ancient Near East, Greco-Roman, and Late Antiquity; their translations for modern applications 

  • Contextual Studies: Ancient cultures and civilizations and how their fluctuation influenced the content of the texts produced in antiquity

  • Reception Studies: Ancient and modern utilization of Ancient texts in changing contexts

 

News

Conference: 

“Classical epic structures in non-epic literature from antiquity to the early modern period.”

The School of Ancient Languages and Text Studies of the North-West University of Potchefstroom in South Africa would like to invite you at the international and interdisciplinary conference.
Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Anke Walter (Zurich)
4-6/7 March 2026
North-West University
Potchefstroom
South Africa

For as long as it has existed, epic has been considered as the archetypal literary genre. Grammarians in antiquity placed it at the top of a hierarchy of genres. So, too, have questions of continuity and change within the epic tradition been ever-present in both Classical scholarship and literary scholarship more broadly. Here scholars have largely sought to understand how the conventions of epic are adapted and modified for various times, places, and forms falling under the rubric of “epic”. But what of epic’s influence outside of its own genre?
We are inviting proposals on the conference theme which aims at describing, analysing, and understanding the use of structures from the genre of classical epic in literature that is not epic. We welcome papers on literatures other than Latin and Greek, but the connection to Classical structures should be the main focus. 

For further information, please contact:

Lynton Boshoff:  Lynton.Boshoff@nwu.ac.za

Johan Steenkamp:  Johan.Steenkamp@nwu.ac.za