The Transfer of Power and/or Learning as an Anchoring Device in Early Modern (Neo-Latin) Literature

This project studies the reception of a ‘Denkform’ from classical antiquity: the notion that there is a natural ‘transfer’ or succession from one culture to the other (the so-called translatio). In antiquity, authoritative schemes of translatio were, e.g., the translatio studii (transfer of intellectual culture or learning) from Greece to Rome, or that of the translatio imperii (transfer of empire) from Troy to Rome. In Early Modern (Neo-Latin) literature this same notion of ‘transfer’ was employed in order to legitimize innovative shifts of power or learning. This ‘Denkform’ anchors these innovations in two ways: first by establishing a connection between the new power or centre of learning and Antiquity via such ‘transfer’; second, by establishing a connection between the Early Modern and ancient notions of ‘transfer’.

The PhD project is part of the programme described above. Possible topics are the legitimization of new centres of power by means of creating a genealogical connection with Troy, or the legitimization of new centres of learning, new forms of literature, or even ‘new’ literary languages by creating a connection with the literature of Rome and Greece.

Candidates are invited to design their own research project, set out in a structured PhD proposal (title, research question, scholarly background, aims, method, corpus). Their research should be primarily based on Neo-Latin sources, but projects in which a comparison with vernacular sources is included are also (and even especially) welcome. In any case, the project should contribute to the overall research programme and address the following research questions: in what ways is the translatio-scheme used as an (anchored) anchoring device? How does it help author(s) to legitimize or generate prestige for new centres of power or new forms of literature? And what does their use of this scheme as anchoring device teach us about the concept of anchoring innovation itself?

More information about the Anchoring Innovation research agenda of OIKOS can be found on the OIKOS website (www.ru.nl/oikos/anchoring-innovation), including an article by Ineke Sluiter, entitled “Anchoring Innovation: a Classical Research Agenda”.

Key responsibilities

Completion of a PhD thesis within four years;
Participation in meetings of the project research group(s);
Presentations of intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
Participation in the training programme of the Graduate School of Leiden University and the National Research School OIKOS (to be supplemented with modules from the research schools Huizinga or Mediëvistiek if desirable for the project);
Participation in staff meetings of the Leiden Classics team and the intellectual life and PhD community of the department and the institute;
Some teaching in the second and third years of the appointment.

Further details:
The Transfer of Power and/or Learning as an Anchoring Device in Early Modern (Neo-Latin) Literature