Odyssean identities in modern cultures: the journey home

Abstract

A very special thanks goes to Jill Frank. her organization of a campus-wide interdisciplinary network, Classics in Contemporary Perspectives, provided the impetus for the conference and her enthusiasm saw the event through to a successful conclusion.At various stages of its development this collection has benefited greatly from the advice of our editor, eugene O'Connor, and the anonymous readers at The Ohio State University Press. We would like to thank the series editors, richard Armstrong and Paul Allen Miller, for their support and encouragement. We are especially grateful to rebecca Vandewalle, who invested much time and effort in proofing, formatting, and collating the manuscript, and to our skillful copy-editor, Marian rogers. The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences provided generous financial support. Perhaps most importantly, we would like to recognize a remarkable group of contributors. Their insights, efficiency, and intellectual rigor have made editing this volume a truly rewarding experience.xi A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s xii • Acknowledgments "Ariadne" and "The return of Ulysses," by Giorgio de Chirico, are reproduced by permission of the Artists rights Society (ArS), New York/SIAe, rome. Images from The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald, english translation copyright 1996 by W. G. Sebald and Michael hulse. Originally published as Die Ausgewanderten, copyright 1992 by W. G. Sebald, are used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.14. I want to thank the organizers and participants of the Nostos conference for their stimulating comments and questions, and, for their insightful comments on an early version of this paper, Justin Isenhart, Tom Jenkins, Tim O'Sullivan, and David rando.1. This term is coined in Ostriker (1982,.37. I give thanks to Max Paddison for his advice on Adorno, and to Jim Samson and richard Alston for reading earlier drafts.1. All translations from homer are those of richmond Lattimore (1967). 2. On the related issues of mobility and stability as expressed in the Sirens episode, see Dough-