School of Humanities

School of Humanities

Graham ZankerProf. Graham Zanker

Position

Professor

Qualifications

  • B.A. Hons. (Adelaide 1970)
  • Ph.D. (Cambridge 1974)

Room

Room 509

Contact Details

Phone: +64 3 364 2987 ext 8599
graham.zanker@canterbury.ac.nz

Postal address:
Classics
School of Humanities
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand

Background

Graham Zanker was awarded his honours degree in Classics at the University of Adelaide in 1970. He proceeded to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge , where he gained his doctorate in 1974. He was appointed Lecturer in Classics at the University of Canterbury in 1975, with a promotion to Associate Professor in 1994, and to Professor in 2004. During his study-leaves he has enjoyed among other things several visits to Tübingen University and the German Archaeological Institute in Rome under the auspices of the German Academic Exchange; the Commonwealth Fellowship for 1985 at the Institute of Classical Studies; London Summer Fellowship at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies (2002); a Visiting Fellowship to Oxford (Christ Church and University College) on the Canterbury-Oxford Exchange; and a Visitorship at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ.

Undergraduate Courses

Graham also contributes to the Programme's Greek and Latin language and literature courses at all levels.

Graduate Courses

Special Honours papers and postgraduate supervision in Greek literature, including Greek epic and Hellenistic poetry.

Research Interests

Graham has written on ethics and characterization in Homer and Hesiod, the so-called realism of Alexandrian Hellenistic poetry, and ancient literary criticism. He has recently written a number of studies on the relationship of Hellenistic poetry and art. He has just completed an edition (with critical essays) on Herodas (2009). He is currently collaborating with Anthony Grafton and Oswyn Murray on a translation and commentary on Christian Gottlob Heyne's De Genio Saeculi Ptolemaeorum (1763).  He is continuing research on the concept of fate in Virgil's Aeneid.

School Administration

Graham was Head of Classics (1996 - 1998 and 2002 - 2008).

Recent Publications

Books

  1. Herodas: Mimiambs (Oxford 2009)
  2. Modes of Viewing in Hellenistic Poetry and Art (Madison, Wisconsin, 2004, paperback 2008)
  3. Reading Plato (London and New York, 1999), an edited translation of Thomas A. Szlezák, Platon lesen (Stuttgart, 1993)
  4. The Heart of Achilles: Characterization and Personal Ethics in the Iliad (Ann Arbor, 1994, paperback 1996)
  5. Realism in Alexandrian Poetry: A Literature and its Audience (London, 1987)
  6. In Progress:  with A. Grafton and O. Murray, Gottlob Heyne's De Genio Saeculi Ptolemaeorum: A Text, Translation, and Analytical Studies

Articles in refereed scholarly journals and chapters in books

  1. 'Characterization in Epigram', in P. Bing and J.S. Bruss (eds.), Brill's Companion to Hellenistic Epigram: Down to Philip (Leiden, 2007) 233-49
  2. 'Poetry and Art in Herodas, Mimiamb 4', in M.A. Harder et al. (eds.), Beyond the Canon, Hellenistica Groningana 7 (Groningen, 2006) 357-77
  3. 'New Light on the Literary Category of 'Ekphrastic Epigram' in Antiquity: The New Posidippus (col. X7-XI19 P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309)', Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 143 (2003) 59-62.
  4. 'Aristotle's Poetics and the Painters', American Journal of Philology, 121 (2000) 225-35.
  5. 'Genre-Marking in Hellenistic Poetry and Art', in M.A. Harder et al. (eds.), Genre in Hellenistic Poetry, Hellenistica Groningana 3 (Groningen, 1998) 225-38.
  6. 'Beyond Reciprocity: The Akhilleus-Priam Scene in Iliad 24', Chapter Three in C. Gill et al. (eds.), Reciprocity in Ancient Greece (Oxford, 1998) 73-92.
  7. 'Pictorial Description as a Supplement for Narrative: the Labour of Augeas' Stables in the Heracles Leontophonos', American Journal of Philology, 117 (1996) 411-23.
  8. Essay (by invitation) on Callimachus' Hecale, in the Reference Guide to World Literature (London, 1996) 215.
  9. Essay (by invitation) on Theocritus, Idyll 7, in the Reference Guide to World Literature (London, 1996) 1200f.
  10. Essay (by invitation) on Callimachus' Aetia, in the Reference Guide to World Literature (London, 1996) 214f.
  11. 'Sophocles' Ajax and the Heroic Values of the Iliad', Classical Quarterly, N.S. 42 (1992) 20-5.
  12. 'Loyalty in the Iliad', Papers of the Leeds Latin Seminar 6 (1990) 211-27.
  13. '"Rausch" and "Persönlichkeit": Tristan versus Antigone in Alfred Döblin's November 1918 ', German Life and Letters 42 (1989) 377-83.
  14. 'Current Trends in the Study of Hellenic Myth in early Third-Century Alexandrian Poetry: The Case of Theocritus', Antike und Abendland 35 (1989) 83-103.
  15. 'time in Hesiod's Theogony', Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 35 (1988) 73-8.
  16. 'The Works and Days: Hesiod's Beggar's Opera?', Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 33 (1986) 26-36.
  17. 'A Hesiodic Reminiscence in Virgil, E . 9.11-13', Classical Quarterly N.S. 35 (1985) 235-7.
  18. 'The Nature and Origin of Realism in Alexandrian Poetry', Antike und Abendland 29 (1983) 125-45.
  19. 'Enargeia in the Ancient Criticism of Poetry', Rheinisches Museum N.F. 124 (1981) 297-311.
  20. 'Simichidas' Walk and the Locality of Bourina in Theocritus, Id. 7', Classical Quarterly N.S. 30 (1980) 373-7.
  21. 'The Love Theme in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica', Wiener Studien N.F. 13 (1979) 52-75.
  22. 'Callimachus' Hecale: A New Kind of Epic Hero?', Antichthon 11 (1977) 68-77.

Reviews

  1. Gutzwiller, K. (ed.), The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book (Oxford, 2005): Prudentia (forthcoming).
  2. Radke, G. Die Kindheit des Mythos:Die Erfindung der Literaturgeschichte in der Antike (Munich 2007): Gnomon 81 (2009) 1-7.
  3. Payne, M., Theocritus and the Invention of Fiction (Cambridge, 2007), and Kirstein, R., Junge Hirten und alte Fischer.  Die Gedichte 27, 20 und 21 des Corpus Theocriteum.  (Texte und Kommentare 29) (Berlin and New York 2007), Classical Review 59 (2005) 88-91.
  4. Small, J.P., The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text (Cambridge, 2003): Classical Bulletin 81 (2005) 73-5.
  5. Hesk J. Sophocles: Ajax (London, 2003): Classical Review 55 (2005) 73-5.
  6. L. Ceccarelli, L'Eroe e il suo limite: Responsibilità personale e valutazione etica nell'Iliade (Bari , 2001): Gnomon 75 (2003) 1-4.
  7. Donna F. Wilson, Ransom, Revenge, and Heroic Identity in the Iliad (Cambridge, 2002): Classical Journal 99.3 (2003-2004) 343-7.
  8. G. Wöhrle, Telemachs Reise: Väter und Söhne in Ilias und Odyssee oder ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der Männlichkeitsideologie in der homerischen Welt, Hypomnemata 124 (Göttingen, 1998): Classical Review 50 (2000) 572-3.
  9. M.A. Seiler, POIESIS POIESEOS: Alexandrinische Dichtung kata lepton in strukturaler und humanethologischer Deutung, Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 102 (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1997): Classical Review 49 (1999) 13-15.
  10. D.C. Feeney, The Gods in Epic: Poets and Critics of the Classical Tradition (Oxford 1991): Prudentia 29 (1997) 68-72.
  11. A. Cameron, Callimachus and his Critics (Princeton, 1995): Prudentia 29 (1997) 34-46.
  12. J. Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (New York, 1994): Philosophy and Literature 19 (1995) 376-7.
  13. J.B. Hainsworth, The Idea of Epic (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1991): Journal of Hellenic Studies 113 (1993) 179-80.
  14. W.V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, Mass., 1989): Philosophy and Literature 15 (1991) 173-5.
  15. M. Gellrich, Tragedy and Theory. The Problem of Conflict since Aristotle (Princeton, 1988): Philosophy and Literature 14 (1990) 188-90.