The strategic reader: capturing voices, revealing perspectives

What does Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe want? What does a university want?

The above may seem like an odd juxtaposition, but, for a few years, I spent every day trying to answer one (or sometimes both) of these questions. I found that, as my work progressed, my scholarship on the ancient novel informed my work as the executive director of a university strategic plan and vice versa.

In this talk, I develop a few threads from my dissertation to show how the structure of Achilles Tatius’ novel Leucippe and Clitophon—an ego-narrative of the hero Clitophon—calls into question the most fundamental component of its genre, the shared love between hero and heroine. I present an innovative approach to unearthing Leucippe’s perspectives and argue that the heroine hints at attitudes and experiences that run counter to the expectations of the genre. This presentation ultimately contributes to our understanding of Achilles Tatius’ dynamic engagement with novelistic predecessors, Leucippe and Clitophon as a whole, and the genre of the Greek novel. I also explore the interrelation between this scholarly project and my professional roles and suggest that classicists might reframe our approach to careers outside of teaching and scholarship.

My talk will therefore be of interest to those curious about classics, ancient novels, narratology, strategy, and careers for humanists.