Science fiction (SF), perhaps the most
paradigmatically modern genre, has ancient roots: from its
arguable point of origin in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's 1818
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, SF has invited
us to look ahead and around in part by looking back. In this
talk, I explore some historical connections between modern SF
and 'classical' antiquity--Greece, Rome, and other ancient
Mediterranean cultures--and suggest that there is a deeper
similarity, insofar as considering history is like imagining
other worlds. Examples likely to include old standbys like Star
Trek, Star Wars, Alien, Blade Runner, and The Matrix;
newer or ... 'stranger things' like Minority Report, Ex
Machina, The Lobster, and Us; and the terrifically
mythic and terrible DC Extended Universe of films.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Benjamin Eldon Stevens works in two
main areas: 'classical receptions,' i.e., how ancient
materials are transmitted and transmuted in more recent
sources, with focuses on underworlds and other afterlives,
science fiction and fantasy, and film; and the ancient
Mediterranean world, especially Latin literature and Roman
history, with special attention to linguistics and sensory
anthropology. He has published four co-edited volumes of
essays on receptions in science fiction and fantasy, a
monograph on silence in the Roman poet Catullus, and numerous
articles; he is also a published translator of French and
Spanish. A graduate of the University of Chicago (PhD 2005)
and Reed College (BA 1998), he taught at Bard College, Hollins
University, Bryn Mawr College, and the University of Colorado
at Boulder (his home town) before reaching Trinity University
in San Antonio, Texas in 2015. Outside of academia, Ben enjoys
learning new languages (currently Icelandic and Swedish),
baking, and a cappella music.
Books
co-edited volumes
Once and Future Antiquities
Frankenstein and Its Classics
Classical Traditions in Modern Fantasy
Classical Traditions in Science Fiction
monograph
Silence in Catullus.