North American professor David Konstan, from New York University (NYU), opened this Thursday (30), in the Auditorium of the Institute of Language Studies (IEL), the series of conferences that he is giving as a guest of the “Program” Cesar Lattes” by Resident Scientist at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IdEA) at Unicamp. A leading name in Classical Studies, Konstan will give a total of eight lectures, between March and June, entitled “Revenge, Retribution and Reconciliation: from Antiquity to the present day”.
Professor of Classical Greek and recognized for his studies in the areas of History of Emotions, History of Religions and History of Forgiveness, the professor discusses his research into texts from Greek and Roman Antiquity that allow us to observe the presence and functioning of notions of revenge, retribution and reconciliation in their cultural context until contemporary times.
“My impression from this first session is that I am extremely grateful to the public. They were very attentive, despite my inability to speak Portuguese, and clearly paid close attention, absorbing the relevant points. I am the one who should feel grateful at the end of this talk. The questions compelled me to think about new aspects to bring relevant modern cases and to consider some points more clearly. I can only say that I hope other people were as pleased as I was,” said David Konstan to Unicamp website.
Around 250 people signed up to follow Konstan's lectures at Unicamp, which are given in English and broadcast in real time on the IEL website. The inaugural conference dealt with revenge as a way of retaliating against aggression, both on a personal and collective level, and proposed possible alternatives in the search for reconciliation and forgiveness strategies. The ways in which two foundational texts of classical Greek culture address revenge, the Iliad and Odyssey, were examined in this first session.
The opening panel was made up of professor Isabella Tardin Cardoso, deputy coordinator of IdEA and professor at IEL, and professor Petrilson Pinheiro da Silva, director of IEL. After the lecture, the question session was attended by professor Flávio Ribeiro de Oliveira, from the IEL Department of Linguistics.
For the process of choosing the names that are part of the Resident Scientist Program, Tardin highlights the importance of excellence in research on an international level, multidisciplinary interest and the social relevance of the work, requirements all met by the NYU researcher. “David Konstan’s presence at any event or work is a guarantee of quality. In addition to the topics covered, Konstan is a reference for studies of texts of different genres, written in Greek and Latin, and other ancient languages, in Antiquity and in previous periods. At 83 years old, he has extremely important publications on his monumental CV, dealing with various textual genres, from poetry (epic, elegiac and dramatic, above all), through historiography and philosophy, to biblical literature, for example”, praised the deputy coordinator of Idea.
The topicality and merit of the discussions proposed by Konstan are an attraction for the participation of researchers from different areas, in addition to Classical Studies, such as History, Archeology, Philosophy, Literary Studies, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Law, Psychoanalysis and Psychology. “The social relevance of reflecting on such notions is evident in the way they interfere to this day in interpersonal and political relationships. In this sense, the themes that the professor proposed to address are in fact necessary and timely in our Brazilian society – which is experiencing political polarization so closely, in which expressions such as 'without forgiveness', 'amnesty', 'justice' and 'revenge' are effectively thematized in the news and in everyday life and are present in the tensions and conflicts that erupt not only in the political sphere, but which affect different groups, in the family and personal spheres”, pondered Tardin.
After the opening lecture, whose title was “Is revenge a dish best served cold? Revenge and emotions from the perspective of Law, Sociology, Psychology and Anthropology”, the series will continue, always on Thursdays, with the themes: “Revenge versus Retribution: Punishment and the Law of Talião” (13/04); “Forgiveness and reconciliation: examples in Aristotle, the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament” (20/04); “Honor and Revenge: is reconciliation always possible? Examples from Homer’s Iliad and Xenophon’s Cyropaedia” (27/04); “Disputes between family clans, social and political groups and other manifestations of revenge” (04/05); “The Psychology of Revenge” (11/05); “Revenge and Retribution: case studies at the individual, social group and State levels” (25/05); and “Reconciliation: case studies based on the Commissions of Truth and Reconciliation, in South Africa” (01/06). Moderators from different areas, from Social Sciences and Political Sciences, Law, History and Ancient Archaeology, Language Acquisition, Discourse Analysis, Literary Theory, as well as Classical Studies, among others, will be part of the tables.
Graduated in mathematics (1961), David Konstan studied for a master's degree (1963) and a doctorate (1967) in Classical Studies at Columbia University. Initially a professor at Wesleyan University (1967-1987), in Connecticut, he was also a professor at Brown University (1987-2010), in Rhode Island, before joining the faculty at New York University (NYU). Among his most recent books are Friendship in the Classical World (Ed. Odysseus, 2005) – the only one of his works published in Brazil –, Before Forgiveness: The Origins of a Moral Idea (Cambridge University Press, 2010), In the Orbit of Love: Affection in Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2018) and The Origin of Sin: Greece and Rome, Early Judaism and Christianity (Ed. Bloomsbury, 2022).
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IdEA's New Resident Scientist David Konstan Discusses Revenge and Reconciliation
