Classics: That Dangerous Supplement?

TLDR: The model adopted at the University of South Carolina sees classics and comparative literature as engaged with each other and co-constitutive of a larger conversation that seeks to define the basic objects of study across the humanities as discussed by the authors.

Abstract: Classics sees theory as a supplement and many comparative literature programs see premodern intellectual life the same way. This mutual suspicion accounts for much of the way theory is taught. In classics, it is often part of a quick proseminar. In comparative literature, theory is said to begin with Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. Plato and Aristotle are nodded to, but not seriously read. The model adopted at the University of South Carolina sees classics and comparative literature as engaged with each other and co-constitutive of a larger conversation that seeks to define the basic objects of study across the humanities.