Lecture by:

• Bettina Reitz-Joosse, Assistant Professor of Latin Literature at Groningen University, The NetherlandsGroningen
• Han Lamers, Professor of Classics at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, and the History of Art and Ideas of the University of Oslo.

This lecture introduces an editorial project currently underway in a team based at Oslo, Groningen and Vienna: an open-access edition and translation of Latin texts written under Italian Fascism and German National Socialism with explicitly political content. We offer an overview of the texts we include, along with the rationale for their selection, and explore the different ways in which the Latin language was politicised under both regimes. In preparing this edition, we are faced with a number of challenges and dilemmas which are peculiar to editing what one might call ‘dangerous documents’. Do the scholarly benefits outweigh the dangers attached to re-publishing and translating imperialist, antisemitic, or militarist rhetoric? Is it problematic to publish the work of either regime's victims alongside that of authors who profited under Fascism? In the second half of our lecture, we explicitly address these and other challenges and explore potential responses. 

More information

Publications by Bettina Reitz-Joosse: 
https://www.rug.nl/staff/b.l.reitz-joosse/research

Publications by Han Lamers: 
https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/people/aca/classics/tenured/hanla/

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