Classical Studies
Arts & Sciences
Duke University
| |
Faculty Database Classical Studies Arts & Sciences Duke University |
|
| HOME > Arts & Sciences > Classical Studies > Faculty | Search Help Login |
|
| Biographical Info of José M. GonzálezJosé M. González studies and teaches Greek poetry, ancient rhetoric and literary criticism, performance and ritual studies, Greek religion, Greek dialects, and historical linguistics. His research explores how performances of song and poetry, as symbolic expressions of culture, intersect and co-evolve with other modes of social performance like festivals and other rituals. His book The Epic Rhapsode and His Craft examines how the cultural role and profession of the rhapsode, the ancient Greek performer of Homeric poetry, developed in dialectic tension with the related performance domains of oracular poetry, dramatic acting, and oratorical delivery.Professor González, a native of the Canary Islands, Spain, received his PhD in Classical Philology from Harvard University and joined the Duke faculty in 2007. He first came to the United States to study physics, and holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Princeton University. His decision to delve into Greco-Roman antiquity, with a particular interest in philology, tapped into his fascination with languages as systems. For example, in the article “Private Settlement or Public Judgment?” he analyzes the form of diakrinômetha, a verb in line 35 of Hesiod’s Works and Days. This verb is neither in the active nor the passive, but in the in-between “middle voice.” Professor González contends that, in the context of archaic Greek culture, this choice draws attention beyond the immediate addressee, Perses, to the performer’s relationship to his audience. Similarly, he notes that the Homeric poems as a linguistic system were composed and shaped primarily in performance, as traveling rhapsodes sought a favorable reception for them from all Greeks everywhere. Furthering his interest in the dialectic tension between tradition and innovation, Professor González is also developing a comparative course on science and technology in Ancient Greece and Ancient China. Among other topics, the course will look at the relationship between scientists and social power structures. The Ancient Greeks, for example, famously prosecuted Socrates for diverging from the approach of traditional religion to the natural world and corrupting the Athenian youth. Natural scientists in the Ancient Chinese milieu, on the other hand, appear generally to have been more in harmony with the structures of power. | |
Duke University * Arts & Sciences * Classical Studies * Faculty * Scholars * Staff * Grad * Reload * Login | ||
