Network, Relation, Flow: Imaginations of Space in Herodotus' History

由于新形式的多媒体软件提供了技术上的可能性，对空间的概念和表示目前正在经历根本性的转变。该项目将采用其中的一些新技术，以促进对希罗多德历史中空间结构和关系的处理的新见解。它将探索不同的方法来表现来自古代文本的地理空间数据，同时询问希罗多德选择的媒介对叙事中空间想象的影响。古代对空间的研究往往局限于考古调查或戏剧表演的分析：关于文学中的空间叙事的工作很少。这种兴趣的缺乏在希罗多德的案例中尤为明显，尽管空间在他的叙事中占据了突出的地位，无论是对波斯扩张的追踪，还是作者自己在世界各地的调查旅行。至少还有另外两个原因说明空间研究对于思考希罗多德的历史是重要的。首先，希罗多德在希腊文化中占有一席之地，这不仅是因为他来自小亚细亚爱奥尼亚海岸的哈利卡纳苏斯(今天的博德鲁姆)，还因为他写下了自己的叙事：在一个以公开话语为主的世界里，希罗多德的文本在意识形态上与他更广泛的社区的媒体截然不同，并提供了一个前所未有的机会来探索写作在空间构思方式上的差异。其次，希罗多德整理文本的方式也为思考空间提供了不同的可能性。最近的学术研究表明，他的叙述具有复合性：他包括来自各种来源的故事和描述。因为，至少在理论上，这些描述代表了特定个人或群体的观点，所以应该有可能分离和评估不同的个人或群体所拥有的空间的各种概念，以及考虑希罗多德将它们联系在一起的方式。因此，这个项目将寻求识别、详细和调查希罗多德的历史中空间被表现和构思的各种方式。它的工作假设是，希罗多德提出了一种经验而不是抽象的空间概念；文本中代表的不同群体通过不同的视角‘想象’空间；他所描述的地中海世界的特征可能是网络、关系和流动，而不是任何中心的概念。证明将来自两种方法。首先，叙事学分析将探讨希罗多德的主要叙事与他的个别代理人的人物文本之间的脱节，并评估随着叙事的展开，空间如何在语境中发挥作用。其次，将编制一个地理参考数据库，将希罗多德的空间坐标绘制在现代地图上，并带有指向历史记录数据的超链接。文本分析和地理数据库的结果将被用来构建文本中构思的空间的一系列不同的拓扑表示。这将有助于将文本中包含的地点之间的关系联系具体化，创建与标准的基于地形的地图截然不同的网络地图。通过这些方式，希罗多德的世界观将通过互联网和一系列出版物被介绍给新的、更广泛的受众。

Conceptions and representations of space are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation thanks to the technical possibilities afforded by new forms of multimedia software. This project will employ some of these new technologies in order to foster new insights into the treatment of spatial formations and relationships in Herodotus' History. It will explore different methods of representing geo-spatial data sourced from ancient texts, while interrogating the manner in which Herodotus' chosen medium impacts on the imagination of space in the narrative.The study of space in antiquity tends to be restricted to archaeological survey or analyses of dramatic performance: little work has been done on the narrativisation of space in literature. This lack of interest is particularly pronounced in the case of Herodotus, despite the fact that space features prominently in his narrative, in terms of both its tracing of Persian expansion, and the author's own investigative journey around the world he writes.There are at least two other reasons why a study of space is important for thinking about Herodotus' History. First, Herodotus occupies a position on the margins of Greek culture, not only by virtue of coming from Halicarnassus (modern-day Bodrum) on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, but also because he writes down his narrative: in a world dominated by spoken words in public, Herodotus' text stands ideologically distinct from the media of his broader community, and presents an unprecedented opportunity to explore the difference writing has on the way space is conceived. Second, the manner in which Herodotus puts together his text also allows different possibilities for thinking about space. Recent scholarship has demonstrated the composite nature of his narrative: he includes stories and accounts from a wide variety of sources. Since, notionally at least, these accounts represent the views of a particular individual or group, it should be possible to isolate and evaluate the various notions of space different individuals or groups possess, as well as to consider the ways in which Herodotus ties them together.Thus, this project will seek to identify, detail and investigate the various ways in which space is represented and conceived in Herodotus' History. Its working hypothesis is that Herodotus presents a notion of space which is experienced rather than abstract; that different groups represented in the text 'imagine' space through different perspectives; and that the Mediterranean world he describes may be characterised in terms of networks, relations and flows rather than any notion of a centre. Proof will derive from two methods. First, a narratological analysis will explore the disjuncture between the primary narration of Herodotus and the character-texts of his individual agents, and assess how space works in context as the narrative unfolds. Second, a geo-referenced database will be compiled to plot Herodotus' spatial co-ordinates on a modern-day map with hyperlinks to the data recorded in the History. The results from both the textual analysis and the geo-database will be used to construct a series of different topological representations of the spaces conceived in the text. This will help crystallise the skein of relational connections between places contained in the text, creating network maps that are radically different from standard, topographical-based maps. By these means Herodotus' world-view will be introduced to a new and wider audience via the internet and a series of publications.