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Reclaiming The Ancient World
Reclaiming The Ancient World
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Towards a Decolonized Classics
Krishnan Ram-Prasad
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Jul 4, 2019 ·
I could go on. But try applying this approach to Classics, and you
will find no such one-line solutions. We are well aware of
how Classics has been used as an instrument of colonialism, but
this isn’t the extent of Classics’ problem with race. Classics is, by
its very definition, a white supremacist subject. For classicists, the
ancient “world” is literally just Italy, Greece, and their colonies.
There’s a smattering of Persia, Egypt, and the Levant if you’re
lucky — which is to say, a handful of civilizations that came into
direct contact with the OG Western Europeans. So when the
question is raised of how we can decolonize our curriculum, we get
a little stuck:
“Yeah, that would be nice but … it’s just not Classics, is it.”
There are some exceptions, of course, but they often fail to break
the mold in any meaningful way. My own research is an apt
example: I wrote my Master’s thesis, in Classics, entirely on
Sanskrit. Decolonization in action! But Sanskrit finds its place in
Classics only because of its prehistoric linguistic connection with
Latin and Greek, and nothing more. Had I chosen a non-Indo-
European language from the subcontinent — say, Tamil — I would
have been banished to some form of area studies: “Asian and
Middle Eastern Studies,” “South Asian Languages and
Civilizations,” or even, most egregiously, the “Oriental Institute”
(yes, Oxford still calls it that).
But, perhaps, the subject has had its time. We absolutely cannot
give Classics a free pass when it comes to decolonization. As the
rest of the humanities progress, Classics is going to look
increasingly ugly: a subject that resolutely refuses to challenge its
white supremacist foundations, while its proponents earnestly
suggest that “if it’s not Rome or Greece, it’s just not our job.”
On the other hand, we could try something that digs a little deeper
into this issue than renaming alone. Something that recognizes
ancient Rome and Greece for the cultural monuments they are,
without also establishing them as the cultural default, othering the
rest of humanity.
But of course those with the most privilege, generally rich and
white, still arrive at university with at least several years of Latin
and Greek; such individuals then excel at a course that rewards
their specific educational history, while state school pupils are
supposed to “catch up” in the first year or two of their degree. And
thus, in a nutshell, a call for “expertise” serves uncritically to
perpetuate age-old classist and racist practices. Some students
may indeed wish to cultivate a detailed linguistic knowledge, and
that is all well and good — as a linguist myself, I’m on board. But
translation and practical criticism of Latin and Greek texts cannot
remain the compulsory centerpiece of Classics, just because that’s
how it’s always been.