Journal of Latin Cosmopolitanism and European Literatures

About this Journal

The Journal of Latin Cosmopolitanism and European Literatures (JOLCEL) is a platform for research on the history of European literature from the perspective of Latin literature as a transnational and cosmopolitan influence. We encourage contributions on Latin literature throughout the ages and on the literatures and literary cultures with which Latin became entwined. With our dialogical format, we hope to join people and ideas in a discussion about what makes European literary identity.

Issue 7 • 2022 • Classics and Canonicity

Published in December 2021, the previous issue of the Journal of Latin Cosmopolitanism and European Literatures was dedicated to the far-reaching influence of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) in creating a classical norm to study and value art in Western Europe. The papers collected in that issue reflected on the various ways in which Winckelmann’s classicizing tendency has affected the interpretation of art over the centuries, with a special focus on those works that have been considered not to meet aesthetic categories developed by the German art critic.

The present issue (Spring 2022) turns to Winckelmann’s influence in the field of literary studies, where the existence of a normative standard has led to equally selective interpretations of literary works, styles and genres that, although often appreciated within their time or context of origin, were said by later critics not to meet the standards of the new classical norm. Each of the articles critically questions the concept of literary normativity and thus indicates the prejudices and biases which authors, texts and even whole periods have faced up until the present day.