The Research Centre for Greek and Latin Literature of the Academy of Athens invites you to the online lecture by Michael Konaris on ‘Representations of ancient Greek and Chinese attitudes to nature from Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859) to Lin Yutang (1895 – 1976). Assumptions and controversies in the history of scholarship’. 

Abstract

In my talk I will examine the juxtaposition of the ancient Greek and Chinese ‘feeling of nature’ in the work of scholars such as Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), Victore de Laprade (1813–1883), Laurence Binyon (1869–1943) and Lin Yutang (1895–1976) with particular attention to how it became implicated in attempts to validate or criticize contemporary Western and Eastern attitudes towards nature. On the one hand, I will look at the tendency, informed by 19th century Eurocentrism and Orientalism, to trace the origins of the Western domination of nature to the depictions of nature in Greek poetry and to deny to Chinese depictions of nature any value other than being aesthetically pleasing; on the other hand, I will look at a reaction by both Western and Chinese scholars who countered that the Chinese ideal of harmony with nature could serve as a salutary corrective to the Western notion of dominating nature that allegedly derived from ancient Greece. In addition to discussing how the ideological agendas of these earlier scholars affected their treatment of Greek and Chinese views of nature, I will point to aspects in their argumentation that would be worth revisiting.

 The talk will take place online on Thursday 30 January 2025, 09.00 New York / 14.00 London / 16.00 Athens / 22.00 Beijing. 

To receive the ZOOM link email mkonaris@academyofathens.gr 

The talk forms part of a series of lectures on the representation of nature and natural imagery in ancient Greek, Latin, Chinese and Japanese literature. For the programme see here:  https://www.academyofathens.gr/en/ereyna/kentra/ereyna-latinikis/kyklos-omilion-2025