Kostis Kourelis has brought back his blog: Buildings, Objects, and Situations: Thoughts on art, architecture, society and culture with special focus on Mediterranean archaeology. So far, he's provided some remarkable prospopography on the history of the American School of Classical Studies and Corinth Excavations and offered a valuable glosses to his recent important study: "Byzantium and the Avant-Garde: Excavations at Corinth, 1920s–1930s," Hesperia 76 (2007), 391-442.
By taking a prosopographical approach to institutional history, he has demonstrated that many of the important figures in the early 20th century history of the American School were personally engaged in the cultural movements of their day. Their involvement in the multifaceted avant-guard movements in early decades of the 20th century informed their fascination with the post-Classical periods -- especially the seemingly organic, mystical, and variegated experiences of the Byzantine -- which held forth promise as a possible alternative to failures of the modern. The edginess of the post-war avant-guard movement comes through in the subversive tone to Kourelis' writing. The conspiratorial feel of his blog (and article) provides a refreshing counterpoint to palpable conservatism that one can still sometimes experience at the American School. It is a place where one can still sip afternoon tea in Loring Hall and discuss whether "the theory" has anything to add to classical studies. And, when it's very still and quiet, one can still hear in response to an overzealous interest in the post-Classical world the infamous line "This is the American School of Classical Studies" (although to be fair, this outlook is quickly fading away...)
Kourelis' blog is also a model academic blog: the short notes, with careful citation, provide useful insights into his research as well as relevant glosses on his published work.
Recent Comments