A masterclass in storytelling: sampling some storytelling strategies in the Homeric Odyssey

The UC Department of Classics presents a special evening talk by guest speaker Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Minchin.

The Odyssey is a good story. We accept that. But can we explain what makes it so satisfying? Experience tells us that the best indicators of a good story are not to be found by studying the orderliness of its telling or the clarity of its language (although these are contributing factors) but by paying attention to the responses of its audience. It is their engagement, their immersion in the tale, and their reactions to the telling that allow us to identify particular strategies that make stories so effective. In this talk I shall focus not on 'story' as a sequence of events but on 'story' as an experience, following up on studies in the cognitive sciences on the mind-based mechanisms through which we engage with and respond to stories.

Elizabeth Minchin is Emeritus Professor of Classics at The Australian National University. With a research interest in cognition, memory, and emotion, she has published two monographs (Homer and the Resources of Memory [OUP 2001) and Homeric Voices [OUP 2007), a number of edited books, and many articles and book chapters on the Homeric epics and on the stories that survive in the landscape around Troy and the nearby Gallipoli Peninsula.

• Recital Room, UC Arts city location, 3 Hereford St, CHCH
• Wednesday 2 April, 5.30pm. Doors open 5.15pm
• Entry is free, but seats are limited so registration is essential

 Banner Image: Proto-attic amphora, c. 670BC, Archaeological Museum of Eleusina