Epic Events

“Epic Events is a powerful meditation on time, memory, and the symbolism of the classical in the U.S. after 9/11. The book is itself epic in its erudite survey of aesthetic forms and traditions, and its remediation of trauma for its readers.”—Patrice Rankine, author of Theater and Crisis: Myth, Memory, and Racial Reckoning in America, 1964–2020

“Through deft and elegant readings juxtaposing classical writings and twenty-first-century literature and art, Eccleston illuminates how time opens possibilities for other ways of being in the world. Epic Events breathes new life into conversations around time, memory, and cultural belonging.”—Dana Luciano, author of How the Earth Feels

“Epic Events is a brilliant account of the politics of time that come with appeals to Greek and Roman classics in modern America. Eccleston skillfully analyzes contemporary works to enhance our understanding of the American classical tradition and to tackle hierarchies of citizenship that derive authority from a timeless, homogeneous, classical past.”—Emily Greenwood, Harvard University

“There is nothing fictive about the way time has been classically harnessed or the way a discipline is tied to racialized injustice. Eccleston’s important book brings a new magnitude to the field of classics through the lens of the chrono-political.”—Sarah Sharma, author of In the Meantime: Temporality and Cultural Politics

“Sasha-Mae Eccleston forcefully demonstrates the ways modern art and literature responding to events like the Vietnam War and 9/11 have engaged with classical material to interrogate the distribution of power and definitions of belonging in America today.”—Denise Eileen McCoskey, author of Race: Antiquity and Its Legacy