Laura Jansen

Laura Jansen works on classical literature and culture, as well as on the tradition of classical antiquity in twentieth-century writing. Her main publications include an edited volume on The Roman Paratext: Frame, Texts, Readers (Cambridge, 2014 and reprinted in 2017) and a monograph on Borges’ Classics: Global Encounters with the Graeco-Roman Past (Cambridge, 2018). Following her work on Borges and antiquity, her next book project, entitled Transcultural Classicisms: The Argentine and Italian Traditions, explores the engagement with the classics in the postmodern fiction and criticism of Julio Cortázar, Alberto Manguel, Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Roberto Calasso, amongst others. The study draws particular attention to the unique ways in which these interrelated traditions project their classical visions from the perspective of intimacy and distance to the classical object, cultural memory and forgetfulness of antiquity, as well as the place and placelessness of the classical canon. This new project relates to her interest in the emerging field of ‘global Classics’, and is situated at the intersection of Classics, the Classical Tradition, and Comparative Literature.