Interview with Francesca Econimo
Dr. Econimo is an Arts and Sciences postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Humanities with a joint appointment at the Jackman Humanities Institute. Her PhD is from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (2021). Her project at the JHI is entitled ‘Other’ Worlds? Islands as Female Domains in Flavian Epic. We talk to her today about Roman poetry, Environmental Humanities, and the value of interdisciplinary research.
Can you tell me about your current research project, and how that fits into your broader interests?
My current postdoctoral project is about the representation of islands in Flavian epic poetry as liminal spaces that foster gender and political experimentation. I combine intertextual analysis with approaches drawn from gender studies, and I investigate how the islands in Flavian epic poetry function as sites that challenge traditional gender hierarchies. Despite the seemingly marginal nature of these insular spaces, the tensions associated with them may paradoxically reflect political and cultural anxieties in contemporary Rome as the imperial centre. The idea that inspired my current project derives from my interest in Statius’ Thebaid (an epic poem inspired by the myth of the Seven Against Thebes, completed in 92 CE), particularly the episode of Lemnos and Hypsipyle: an island in the Aegean Sea and its former queen [respectively]. I’ve always been fascinated by this long episode. The island of Lemnos is associated with the myth of the Lemnian women, who killed the men of the island, thus subverting both familial bonds and traditional social hierarchies. After the massacre, a new gynocratic regime is established, and new births are secured by the arrival of the Argonauts. This situation, however, doesn’t last long: collapse and disorder undermine the stability of Lemnos once again in a cycle of regeneration and collapse, order and disorder. Since the island of Lemnos offers a really interesting, albeit extreme, example of gender and political experimentation, I wanted to explore more and see if this pattern of tension affected other islands in Flavian epic poetry as well.
How do you see your work in relation to the Environmental Humanities (EH), since you are a JHI (Jackman Humanities Institute) postdoctoral fellow. Where does your interest in EH stem from?
My interest in EH began at the JHI, where I was encouraged to explore the environmental implications of islands as natural spaces in Flavian poetry. Last year, Cristiana Roffi organized a conference on EH and Latin literature and invited me to present a paper. That was the first real opportunity for me to start exploring a case study for my research project, the island of Peuke in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica (a Flavian epic poem that tells the story of Jason’s voyage to recover the Golden Fleece) through the lens of EH. My focus was on this small island in the Danube river as a natural environment affected by human intervention in terms of gender, political, and ethnic conflict. This Spring, moreover, I will spend three weeks in Oxford, supported by the Environmental Humanities International Doctoral Cluster. This experience will give me the opportunity to develop a small-scale project on the deforestation of the grove of Nemea in Statius’ Thebaid from an environmental and ecocritical perspective. This is an interesting case study as the landscape of Nemea first suffers from a drought caused by the god Bacchus to prevent the Argive soldiers from marching towards Thebes. Afterwards, the forest itself is devastated and almost erased as the Argive troops cut down all the trees to make a pyre for Opheltes (the son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea), who is killed by a snake. Drought, deforestation, and the near destruction of the Nemean environment bear witness to the violence of human and divine intervention and the effects of warfare on nature.
What drew you to the JHI or what drew you to Toronto to develop this project? And what has your experience been like?
My position can be considered hybrid, because I have a fellowship in Classics from Arts and Science, and at the same time, a fellowship in EH from the JHI. It’s a great privilege. My experience at the JHI has been extremely stimulating and truly interdisciplinary. It has encouraged me to engage with junior and senior fellows from across the Humanities. All the fellows gather on Thursdays for a weekly lunch and seminar followed by a discussion. I also presented my current research through the lens of the Institute’s themes. Last year’s theme was Underground and Underworld. This year it is Dystopia and Trust. For this year’s theme, I focused on the episode of Lemnos and Hypsipyle as a dystopian scenario of intrafamilial discord in which narrative trust is also questioned. The fact that the dark and disturbing story of the island, particularly the massacre and its political aftermath, is narrated by Hypsipyle from her subjective perspective invites us to reflect on her reliability as a narrator. I tried to combine those perspectives (how dystopian events shape the narrative pact between internal narrators, narratees, and readers) to meet the goals of this year’s theme.
You've already alluded to some projects that you have going on in the future. But can you tell me a bit more about that?
One project I’m working on now is organizing a workshop on islands as “Other” spaces in Latin poetry as part of my postdoctoral work. The idea is to bring together senior and junior scholars from Europe, America, and of course, Toronto, and to explore new perspectives on islands as a distinct spatial category, from Vergil to Claudian. This would be a nice complement to my own research, which is focused on Latin Silver Age epic poetry in particular. Another long-term plan is to produce a commentary on Books 4–6 of Statius’ Thebaid. My work on the figure of Hypsipyle, the island of Lemnos, and the forest of Nemea will provide preliminary material for this commentary project, which I would like to pursue more systematically after completing my current postdoctoral work here in Toronto.