Curriculum vitae

Irene de Jong was educated at the University of Amsterdam (1975-1982). She worked as a secondary schoolteacher (1982-3), was a Stipendiatin at the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, Hamburg (Lexikon des fruehgriechischen Epos) (1984), and obtained a research grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (1984-7). In 1988 she was appointed as Academy Fellow, in 1998 as Academy Professor, and since 2001 she holds the chair of Ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam.

    Since 2007 she is a member of the Academia Europaea.

    She is one of the editors of the journal Mnemosyne, of the series Mnemosyne supplements, and of the series Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology. She is on the board of the journal Eirene and Ancient narrative.

     Applying concepts from narratology to ancient texts, notably Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, and Euripides, Irene de Jong has opened new areas of research, refined interpretations, and modernized age old philological tools such as commentaries and literary histories. 

Current research projects

Irene de Jong is editing a multi-volume and multi-author literary history of ancient Greek narrative texts. Its organization is formal rather than biographical. It traces the history of central narrative devices, such as the narrator and his narratees, focalization, characterization, description, speech, and plot. It offers not only analyses of the handling of such a device by individual authors, but also a larger historical perspective on the manner in which it changes over time and is put to different uses in different genres. In 2004 the first volume, Narrators, Narratees, and narratives in Ancient Greek Literature , appeared with Brill, Leiden; in 2007 the second volume, Time in Ancient Greek Literature;  in 2012 the third volume,  Space in Ancient Greek Literature . A fourth volume, on Character in Ancient Greek literature,  is at present being edited by K. de Temmerman and E. van Emde Boas. 

She is currently leading (with professor Caroline Kroon from the VU) the NWO funded research project 'Ancient War narrative, a combined linguistic-narratological approach'.

In the autumn of 2014 she will be a fellow at the International  'Morphomata' in Kölln and work on her new research project 'Herodotus and the rise of Greek prose'.

Key publications

Narratology and Classics: a Practical Guide (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2014)

 Narrative is an important element in our daily life and the novel is arguably the most popular genre of our times. The theory of narrative or narratology, which was developed in the 1960s, has helped us towards a better understanding of the how and why of narrative. Narratology and Classics is the first introduction to narratology that deals specifically with classical narrative: epic, historiography, biography, the ancient novel, but also the many narratives inserted in drama or lyric.

The first part of the volume sketches the rise of narratology, and defines key narratological terms, illustrated with examples from both modern novels and Greek and Latin texts. Among the topics discussed are the identity of the role of narrator and narratees, tales within tales, metalepsis, temporal devices such as prolepsis and analepsis, retardation and acceleration, repetition and gaps, focalisation, and the thematic, symbolic, or characterising functions of space. The second part of the volume offers three close readings of famous classical texts and shows how the interpretation of these texts can be enriched by the use of narratology.

The aim of this practical guide is to initiate its readers quickly into a literary theory that has established itself as a powerful new instrument in the classicist's toolkit. All concepts are clearly defined and illustrated from Greek and Latin texts, and detailed bibliographies at the end of each chapter point the way to theoretical studies and to further narratological studies of classical texts.

Homer Iliad Book XXII (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2012).

 Book XXII recounts the climax of the Iliad: the fatal encounter between the main defender of Troy and the greatest warrior of the Greeks, which brings the - oft announced - death of Hector and Achilles' revenge for the death of his friend Patroclus but at the same time adumbrates Achilles' own death and the fall of Troy.

            This commentary offers up-to-date linguistic guidance, and elucidates narrative techniques, typical elements, and central themes. The introduction summarises central debates in Homeric scholarship, such as the circumstances of composition and the literary interpretation of an oral poem, and offers synoptic discussions of the structure of the Iliad, the role of the narrator, similes, and epithets. There is a separate section on language, which provides a compact list of the most frequent Homeric characteristics.While the introduction is mainly geared at intermediate and advanced students, the commentary is designed for use by both students and professional classicists.

A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2001

Whereas traditional commentaries tend to be comprehensive and micro-textual, this narratological commentary focuses on one aspect of the Odyssey, its narrativity, and pays lavish attention to the meso- and macro-levels. Drawing on theconcepts of modern narratology as well as the insights of Homeric scholarship, it discusses the role of narrator and narratees, methods of characterization and description, plot-development, focalization, and the narrative exploitation of type-scenes. Full attention is also given to the structure, characterizing function, and relation to the narrative context of the abundantly present speeches. Finally, the numerous themes and motifs, which so subtly contribute to the unity of this long text, are traced and evaluated. Although Homer's brilliant narrative art has always been admired, this commentary aims to lay bare the techniques responsible for this brilliance. All Greek is translated and all technical terms explained in a glossary.

Review

'... the book is a stimulating and thought-provoking addition to the previous commentaries on the Odyssey.' Scholia

Narrators and Focalizers . The Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (Amsterdam Grüner 1987, reprinted London Duckworth 2004)

Acclaimed as one of the pioneering texts to introduce narratology (the theory that deals with the general principles underlying narrative texts) to classical scholarship, Irene de Jong's work explains the key concepts such as "narrator", "focalization" and "prolepsis", highlighting their relevance by using them for the analysis and interpretation of Homer's "Iliad". What is the role of the narrator and how do the parts of the story told by the narrator relate to the many speeches for which Homer is famous?

This work was first published in 1987 and it is reissued here with a new introduction by the author, offering an overview of the trends in Homeric narratological scholarship over the last decade.

Teaching

Irene de Jong teaches BA- and MA-courses on Homer, drama, Greek literature, and Greek narrative texts.

She has (co-)supervised six dissertations and is at present supervising seven more.

She has been a member of 27 promotion-committees, Amsterdam (UvA and VU), Leiden, Groningen, Nijmegen, Oxford, Gent,Parijs, and Venice. 

Activities

 Irene de Jong is co-organising an international conference on 'Textual strategies in Greek and Latin War narrative', Amsterdam 23-25 october 2014.

In the past she organised international conferences on Homer ( 1987) Sophocles (2003), 'Narrators and narratees in ancient Greek narrative' (1999), 'Time in Ancient Greek Narrative' (2005), and 'Space in ancient Greek Narrative' (2009).

She co-organised a workshop on 'The language of literature: linguistic approaches to classical texts' (Katwijk, 16-17 december 2005).

She frequently gives talks on all levels, academic, teacher training, general public, both in Holland and abroad.  

• University of Melbourne
  External examiner PhD thesis
• Oxford university press
  Beoordeling MS.
• KHMW
  Jury K. Hodshon prijs