Background
Kirby, John Thomas was born on May 9, 1955 in New Haven. Son of Edward Joseph and Mildred Jean (Howard) Kirby.
( Precious repositories of ancient wisdom? Musty relics o...)
Precious repositories of ancient wisdom? Musty relics of outmoded culture? Timeless paragons of artistic achievement? Hegemonic tools of intellectual repression? Just what are the classics, anyway, and why do (or should) we still pay so much attention to them? What is the literary canon? What is myth, and how do we use it? These are some of the questions that gave rise to John Kirby's Secret of the Muses Retold. This new study of works by five twentieth-century Italian writers investigates the abiding influence of the Greek and Roman classics, and their rich legacy in our own day. The result is not only a splendid introduction to contemporary Italian literature, but also a lucid and stimulating meditation on the insights that writers such as Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino have tapped from the wellspring of ancient tradition. Kirby's book offers an impassioned plea for the recuperation of the humanities in general, and of classical studies in particular. No expertise in Greek, Latin, Italian, or literary theory is presumed, and both traditional and postmodern perspectives are accommodated.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226437485/?tag=2022091-20
comparative literature educator
Kirby, John Thomas was born on May 9, 1955 in New Haven. Son of Edward Joseph and Mildred Jean (Howard) Kirby.
AB cum laude, University North Carolina, 1977. Master of Arts, University North Carolina, 1981. Doctor of Philosophy, University North Carolina, 1985.
Assistant professor classics Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1985-1987. Assistant professor to professor classics and comparative literature Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, since 1987, chair classics, 1988-1994, chair comparative literature, 1994—2001. Editorial consultant Purdue University Press, Yale University Press, University California Press, University South Carolina Press, University Chicago Press.
Consultant University Oklahoma, 1997, University Notre Dame, 1998.
( Precious repositories of ancient wisdom? Musty relics o...)
(Book by Kirby, John T.)
Member Modern Language Association, American Comparative Literature Association, American Philological Association (Teaching award), California Classical Association, Classical Association Middle West and South (member executive committee, Teaching award), American Society for the History of Rhetoric, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Eta Sigma.
Children: Susannah Leigh, David Alexander.