Helen V. Lovatt is Professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham. She is known in particular for her work on Latin epic literature especially from the Flavian period.[1]
Career
Lovatt studied at Millfield and then read Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where she was awarded her PhD in 2000 with a dissertation on Games and realities in Statius, 'Thebaid 6'.[2] Lovatt lectured at Keele University before moving to a Junior Research Fellowship at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. In 2003 Lovatt joined the department of Classics at the University of Nottingham.[1] Lovatt delivered her inaugural lecture as Professor of Classics, Epic Journeys, on 15 February 2017.[3][4]
Lovatt's PhD work on the athletic games in Statius' Thebaid was published as Statius and Epic Games: Sport, Politics and Poetics in the Thebaid (Cambridge University Press, 2005). In the book, Lovatt interpreted Statius' work as a microcosm of the whole epic tradition.[1] More recently, Lovatt has worked on the epic tradition in both Latin and Greek literature, publishing a book on vision in epic from Homer to Nonnus, The Epic Gaze: Vision, Gender and Narrative in Ancient Epic (Cambridge University Press, 2013)[5] and a co-edited work Epic Visions (Cambridge University Press, 2013) with Caroline Vout which resulted from a conference in Nottingham in 2003.[6]
Lovatt currently works on classical reception, particularly in detective and children's literature, resulting in her co-edited volume Classical Reception and Children's Literature: Greece, Rome and Childhood Transformation (I. B. Tauris, 2018) with Owen Hodkinson following a conference on the subject at the University of Wales, Lampeter in 2009.[1]
Selected publications
(2018) ed. with Owen Hodkinson Classical Reception and Children's Literature: Greece, Rome and Childhood Transformation (I. B. Tauris)
(2016) Flavian Spectacle: Paradox and Wonder. In: ZISSOS, A., ed., A Companion to the Flavian Age of Imperial Rome Blackwell. 361–75.
(2015) Following after Valerius: Argonautic moments in Statius’ Thebaid. In: DOMINIK, W.J., GERVAIS, K. and NEWLANDS, C., eds., Brill's Companion to Statius Brill. 408–24.
(2013) The epic gaze: vision, gender and narrative in ancient epic (Cambridge University Press).[5][7]
(2013) ed. with Caroline VoutEpic visions: visuality in Greek and Latin epic and its reception (Cambridge University Press).
(2007) Statius, Orpheus, and the post-Augustan vates. Arethusa, 40(2), 145–163.[8]
(2006) The female gaze in Flavian epic: looking out from the walls in Valerius Flaccus and Statius. In Nauta, Ruurd Robijn; Dam, Harm-Jan Van; Smolenaars, Johannes Jacobus Louis (eds.) Flavian Poetry (pp. 59–78). BRILL.[9]
(2001) Mad about Winning: Epic, War and Madness in the Games of Statius' Thebaid. Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici, (46), 103–120.
(1999) Competing Endings: Re-Reading the End of the Thebaid Through Lucan. Ramus, 28(2), 126–151.[11]
