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Marguerite Johnson

Marguerite Johnson

Marguerite Johnson is Professor of Classics at The University of Newcastle. She is a writer and academic specialising in the widespread influences of the ancient Mediterranean on post-antiquity. Her focus is on the reception of Greek and Roman cultures in colonial Australia, including literature and art. She also researches gender and sexualities in antiquity through to modernity, with a particular interest in twentieth and twenty-first century Australia. Marguerite is the author of several scholarly books, numerous articles and chapters, and has also published a series of short stories (one of which was awarded a Scarlet Stiletto). She is a regular contributor to The Conversation and the ABC.

Marguerite Johnson reviews 'The Odyssey' by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson, and 'The Iliad: A new translation' by Homer, translated by Peter Green

December 2018, no. 407 01 November 2018
For as long as I have studied Classics, first as a high-school student, later as an undergraduate and PhD student, and now as a professor, I have carried Homer’s poems close to me. The Iliad and, to a slightly lesser extent, the Odyssey are my touchstones. All that needs to be known can be found in them. I have taught them for more years than I care to remember. I still cry at certain parts. I s ... (read more)

Marguerite Johnson reviews 'How to Die: An Ancient guide to the end of life' by Seneca, edited and translated by James S. Romm

September 2018, no. 404 27 June 2018
Studies of the ancient Mediterranean are increasingly popular. Once a privilege of the élite, whose schools prepared predominantly male students for tertiary study of Greek and Latin, Classics now has a much wider audience. This is partly the result of scholars such as Mary Beard (recently the recipient of a damehood) who have made inroads into popularising ancient Greece and Rome. While general ... (read more)

'Picnic at Hanging Rock fifty years on' by Marguerite Johnson

December 2017, no. 397 24 November 2017
Everyone agreed that the day was just right for the picnic to Hanging Rock – a shimmering summer morning warm and still ... Far from being a flimsy, frilly story for women full of antique charm and middle-class manners, Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock is a novel of sharp social observations and nuanced critique; subtle and sometimes latent sensuality; and layered, intricate allegory. Th ... (read more)