Suzanne Lye has received a Fellowship in Hellenic Studies from the Center for Hellenic Studies (Harvard University), to be used in support of work on her second book project, To Starve and To Curse: Women’s Anger in Ancient Greek Literature and Magic, an exploration of ways in which women expressed anger and agency in subverting androcentric and dominant sociopolitical structures in the ancient Greek world. “The work examines canonical and non-canonical texts from a variety of sources, both literary and archaeological, to show how ancient authors and audiences used stories of anger and similarly strong emotion expressed by female figures to define and constrain the lives of women through specific narrative templates. Literary depictions detail specific magical technologies and rhetorical strategies that angry women employed, while the archaeological evidence demonstrates their actual use. By bringing literary sources into dialogue with historical and material evidence to examine women’s anger, her book will provide insights into how ancient societies engaged with their most vulnerable, disenfranchised, and marginalized members.”
The Center for Hellenic Studies and its fellowship program encourage and support research of the highest quality on topics related to ancient Greek civilization. The proposed research may be approached through any discipline including, but not limited to, area and ethnic studies, anthropology, archaeology, art history, education, history, linguistics, literary criticism, the natural and physical sciences, philology, philosophy, political science, religious studies, and sociology, as well as related subfields. The fellowship program aims to foster interaction among researchers from diverse backgrounds and regions of the world, and places an emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches that reflect the evolving nature of Hellenic studies.