CFP: Twists of Fate: coincidence, accident and chance in the ancient world

Keynote Speaker: Peter Struck, Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania

“Aristotle on Lucky People”

In the Poetics, Aristotle describes a spooky coincidence supposed to have happened in his lifetime. An Argive named Mitys was murdered, but shortly thereafter a statue of the man fell on his murderer even while the wrongdoer was looking at it. Such events, Aristotle writes, are the result of pure chance; but they evoke wonder because they seem to have happened on purpose. If a tragedian is to use coincidence in his plot, he concludes, it should have this uncanny semblance of intentionality.

In its broadest sense, of course, coincidence describes an instance of simultaneity or juxtaposition: the intersection of people, objects, ideas, events in space or time. More specifically, coincidence often implies an apparent lack of cause behind these intersections, as in Aristotle’s anecdote. We are confronted instead by the operation of chance, and a sense of the inexplicable that strikes us as anything from disturbing and chaotic to miraculous and serendipitous.

We are interested in graduate student work that deals with ancient understandings and depictions of coincidence, accidents, and chance in all their forms; the reception of ancient explanatory models and their influence on our interpretation of the past; as well as moments of coincidence that shape or limit our interactions with the ancient world. We welcome papers from all disciplines, and encourage engagement with the topic from any angle.

Papers might consider:

• The role of coincidence in various forms of narrative
  • chance as a plot device
  • the language of chance and coincidence; metaphors, poetics, imagery
• Perceptions of coincidence; the strange and uncanny versus the happy and fortuitous
• The mechanisms deployed to explain chance occurrences; omens and divination; the dichotomy between ‘apparent’ and ‘real’ coincidence
• Coincidence and causality in historiography; vicissitudes of fortune in historical events
  • political processes that incorporate elements of chance
• Philosophies of chance; mathematical conceptions of probability and randomness
• The effect of coincidence on language and linguistic development
• The materiality of coincidence:
  • the operation of chance in the preservation and transmission of texts and objects
  • random or coincidental artistic and architectural juxtaposition; representations of coincidence and chance in visual art
  • the role of chance in urban development

*Those interested in presenting papers should submit abstracts of no more than 300 words to [email protected] Accommodation will be provided for participants Presentations will be 20 minutes long.