Dialogos - Stanford University

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84

CB 72 (1996)

Responsible Popularization: An Introduction loslah Ober Princelon University

Dialogos Helleaie Studiel Review

Edlton Michael SIlk, King's College London, UK David Ricks, King's College London, UK

Buslnesl Editor Gnham Gould, King's College London, UK DialogO$ is the only journal of its scope in English. Its purview is Greek language and literature, Greek history and archaeology, Greek culture and thought, present and past: a territory of distinctive richness and UDSUrJl8SIOd influence. DialogO! seeks to foster critical awareness and informed debate about the ideas, events and achievements that make up this territory, by redefinina their qualities, by exploring their interconnections and by reinterpreting their signifieanc:e within Western culture and beyond. The greater part of each issue eonsista of articles that embrace these aims; but DialogO$ is in addition open to a wide range of other contributions: reviews of important books or groups of books, reviews of artistic or cultural events, translations from Greek literature of any period, and ori&iDalliterary work. Dla/ogos is, above all, a journal of dialogue and debate in Hellenic SlUdies.

CODteDts of Volume 3 A Clu11tlaa neolopaa at tile Co.rt of tile Callpll: Some CroD-Cultunl Reflectlou by Andrew Lmdh Sullletl aDd SUDrisa Iu Homer alld ApoUouhn of Rhod.: Book-Dlvlsiou aDd Beyolld by Irene J F De Jong Grote OD Socntel: Aa Uapublillled Euay of tile 11201 Ia hi CODtest by Kyriacos ne-tP-iOll

HODIeIick by AlctandrO$ PapadiaMortdis, transllllod by LAo Marshall Six 8aadnd Vein ofSettleta.t Hiltory of tile Media.. PeDluDIa: Au laterdllctpllury Approedt by H_ish Forba, Christopher Mee IIId Lin Foxhall Homeric f'oetry alld Moden Gnak Fo1kMDp: A SeeoIId Euay by G M Sifakis Rm-AtdcIa ~t Won. .. HelleDlAk Hittory by F W Wa/bank WIlen Do tile Marblel Baloq'I by George SteiJser, Erika SIMon, G M Sifakis and n.o.tuHardy

ISSN 1351-0355 VoImM 31996 One ~ pery~.S1lriaI !DdivldlIDII £221$40 m.diulioas £401$55

Why, you may ask, should classicists popularize in the first place? And, if popularize they must, why bother to do so "responsibly"? The very notion of "responsible popularization" invokes distasteful images of sordidly plebeian amusements for some readers; for others it smacks of boring moralism and empty cant. "For heaven's sake," Our imagined interlocutors on either side exclaim, "either be serious" (teach and write for fellow specialists) "or have some fun!" (revel in the free-play zone where fact and fiction have no recognized bounds). This introductory essay anticipates those objections by arguing that classicists should engage in the attempt to "responsibly popularize" the classical world, and should welcome such attempts on the part of their colleagues. The authors of the essays that follow demonstrate that it is not only desirable but possible to popularize material that forms the subject matter of professional classical studies and to do so responsibly in this, the last decade of the twentieth century. They attempt to popularize and to discuss popularization in ways that are at once accessible and serious, to be responsible without losing their sense of fun. The reader of these essays will have to decide for him or herself how successful each of us has been in the endeavor. There are a variety of approaches to popularization, and each will be best suited to a particular audience. But we believe that a sincere attempt on the part of a wide range of classicists to popularize responsibly is essential to the hope that classics will thrive well into the ned millennium.' Readers of Donna Tartt's Secrel Hislory, a best-selling novel of 1992 chronicling the shocking lives of several classics majors in a thinly disguised New England liberal arts college, were pointedly reminded that classics can easily be portrayed as a peculiar field of endeavor appealing mostly to other-worldly intellectuals and social misfits.' Tartt conjures up a world in which Clani'at Bulldi"

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