Emily Rose Caroline Wilson (born 1971) is a British
classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Cla ...
and the Professor of Classical Studies at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...
.
[Emily R. Wilson](_blank)
University of Pennsylvania. In 2017 she became the first woman to publish a translation of
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Iliad'', ...
'' into English.
Early life and education
Wilson "comes from a long line of academics",
including both her parents,
A. N. Wilson
Andrew Norman Wilson (born 27 October 1950)["A. N. Wilson"](_blank)
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. and
Katherine Duncan-Jones
Katherine Dorothea Duncan-Jones, (13 May 1941 – 16 October 2022) was an English literature and Shakespeare scholar. She was a Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge (1965–1966) and then Somerville College, Oxford (1966–2001). She was also Profess ...
, her uncle, and her maternal grandparents, including
Elsie Duncan-Jones.
Her sister is the food writer
Bee Wilson. Wilson's parents divorced shortly before she went to college.
Wilson was "shy but accomplished" in school.
A graduate of
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...
, in 1994 (B.A. in
literae humaniores, classical literature, and philosophy), she undertook her
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
1500–1660 at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12t ...
(1996), and her
Ph.D. (2001) in classical and comparative literature at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
.
Her thesis was entitled ''Why Do I Overlive?: Greek, Latin and English Tragic Survival''.
Career
Wilson has authored five books. The first, ''Mocked With Death'' (2005), grew out of her dissertation and examines mortality in the tragic tradition: "our constant awareness of all that we will lose, are losing, have lost."
The work received the Charles Bernheimer Prize of the
American Comparative Literature Association
The American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) is the principal learned society in the United States for scholars whose work connects several different literary traditions and cultures or that examines the premises of cross-cultural liter ...
in 2003.
In 2006, she was named a Fellow of the
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome.
The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.
History
In 1893, a group of American architects, ...
in Renaissance & Early Modern scholarship (
Rome Prize
The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...
). Her next book, ''The Death of Socrates'' (2007), examines
Socrates
Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no t ...
' execution. Wilson later reflected that she was interested in the ways and methods that Socrates would educate people, but also Socrates' death as an image: "What does it mean to live with so much integrity that you can be absolutely yourself at every moment, even when you've just poisoned yourself?"
Wilson's next works primarily focused on Rome's tragic playwright
Seneca. In 2010, she translated Seneca's tragedies, with an introduction and notes, in ''Six Tragedies of Seneca''. In 2014 she published ''The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca''. She later noted that Seneca is an interesting subject because "he's so precise in articulating what it means to have a very, very clear vision of the good life and to be completely unable to follow through on living the good life." Wilson commented on the challenges of translating Seneca's ornate rhetorical style, saying that Senecan bombast in contemporary English risks sounding "too silly to be impressive. It has to go very close to sounding silly, but without quite getting there."
Wilson is a
book reviewer
__NOTOC__
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.
A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...
for ''
The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'', the ''
London Review of Books
The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.
History
The ''London Review o ...
'', and ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
''. She is also the classics editor for ''The Norton Anthology of World Literature'' and ''The Norton Anthology of Western Literature''.
In January 2020, Wilson joined the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
judging panel, alongside
Margaret Busby
Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Le ...
(chair),
Lee Child
James Dover Grant (born 29 October 1954), primarily known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British author who writes thriller novels, and is best known for his ''Jack Reacher'' novel series. The books follow the adventures of a former American ...
,
Sameer Rahim
Sameer Rahim is a British literary journalist and novelist. He became Managing Editor (Arts and Books) at ''Prospect'' magazine, having previously worked at the ''London Review of Books'' and at ''The Daily Telegraph'', and his reviews of both fic ...
and
Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay FRSL (born 21 May 1967) is a British author and broadcaster. Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has been chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trus ...
.
''Odyssey'' translation
Wilson is perhaps best known for her critically acclaimed translation of ''The Odyssey'' (2017), becoming the first woman to publish a translation of the work into English. Following a lengthy introduction, she provides a translation of Homer's work in iambic pentameter. Wilson's ''Odyssey'' was named by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as one of its 100 notable books of 2018 and it was shortlisted for the 2018
National Translation Award The National Translation Award is awarded annually by the American Literary Translators Association for literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book o ...
. In 2019, Wilson was the recipient of a
MacArthur Fellowship
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...
for her work bringing classical literature to new audiences.
Beginning, "Tell me about a complicated man", Wilson writes with some creative and unusual phrases (such as "journeyways of fish"), although much of her verse translation uses "plain, contemporary language".
, attending to both Homer's "fleetness" and "rhythm and musicality".
Following many other Homeric scholars, she has argued that the hierarchical societies depicted in the Homeric poems are not viewed uncritically by the narrator, and that the poems include many voices and many distinct points of view. In one noteworthy choice, enslaved characters, described as "dmoiai" or "dmoioi" in the Greek, are often referred to as "slaves" in Wilson's versions, instead of "maids" or "servants"; Wilson has expressed surprise that so many modern North American translations obscure the social structures, noting "how much work seems to go into making slavery invisible."
[
Wilson has noted that being a woman did not predetermine her critical work as a scholar, reader or translator, and has expressed discomfort with the media reception of her work in terms of gender, since it tends to obscure her primary goals (such as the use of regular meter and attention to sound), and risks erasing the work of other female Homerists and female translators. Wilson has emphasized that other female translators of Homer, such as ]Anne Dacier
Anne Le Fèvre Dacier (1647 – 17 August 1720), better known during her lifetime as Madame Dacier, was a French scholar, translator, commentator and editor of the classics, including the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. She sought to champion a ...
and Rosa Onesti, made very different interpretative choices from hers.
Bibliography
Books and translations
*
''The Death of Socrates: Hero, Villain, Chatterbox, Saint''
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
, 2007. .
''Seneca: Six Tragedies''
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
, 2010. .
''The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca''
Oxford University Press, 2014. .
Modern Library
The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...
/Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 2016. ''Helen'',_''Helen'',_
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_
''The_Trojan_Women''_(_grc,_Τρῳάδες,_translit=Trōiades),_also_translated_as_''The_Women_of_Troy'',_and_also_known_by_its_transliterated_Greek_title_''Troades'',_is_a_tragedy_by_the_Greek_playwright_Euripides._Produced_in_415_BC_during__...
''_and_''Electra_(Euripides_play).html" "title="The_Bacchae">''Bacchae'',_''The_Trojan_Women.html" "title="The_Bacchae.html" ;"title="Helen_(play).html" ;"title="ilson translated Helen (play)">''Helen'', The Bacchae">''Bacchae'', ''The Trojan Women">Trojan Women
''The Trojan Women'' ( grc, Τρῳάδες, translit=Trōiades), also translated as ''The Women of Troy'', and also known by its transliterated Greek title ''Troades'', is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced in 415 BC during ...
'' and ''Electra (Euripides play)">Electra
Electra (; grc, Ήλέκτρα) is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, '' Electra'' by Sophocles and '' Electra'' by Euripides. She is also the centra ...
, 2017. .
, 2021. .
*''The Iliad (Homer)'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2023.
'', 15 August 2006.