JSPS Special Lecture will be given by Professor Susanna Elm (Sidney H. Ehrman Professor of European History, Department of History, College of Letters & Science, University of California, Berkeley) at Komaba Campus, The University of Tokyo, on 3 March 2020.
- Presenter: Prof. Susanna Elm (University of California, Berkeley)
- Title: “Books, Bodies, Histories: Augustine of Hippo on the Extraordinary (City of God XVI.8)”
- Abstract:
In Book 16 of the City of God Augustine of Hippo discusses human bodies described by what he calls “too curious histories” as monstrous; such bodies, he tells us, are also depicted in mosaics on the grand esplanade in Carthage. Augustine here refers to Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, where Pliny talks about pygmies, persons with feet so big that they can be used as sun shades, or persons who have only one eye in the center of their foreheads. Augustine additionally sprinkles mentions of extraordinary bodies throughout the City of God, not as described in histories but as present phenomena. Why is Augustine so interested in these bodies and why does he discuss them in greater detail in Book 16? What might that tell us about Augustine’s concepts of histories and the role of extraordinary bodies? - Date & Time: 14:00-17:30, 3 March 2020
- Place: Komaba Campus, The University of Tokyo