King’s College London Academic Wins AJP Best Article Prize
Dr Rosa Andújar, Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts in the Department of Liberal Arts, received the AJP Best Article Prize for her work on Cuban literature inspired by ancient Greek literature.
The award acknowledges Dr Andújar’s article “Philological Reception and the Repeating Odyssey in the Caribbean: Francisco Chofre’s La Odilea”, which featured in a special issue of the American Journal of Philology on “Diversifying Classical Philology”.
“Andújar’s article is exemplary in several important respects: in its capacity to model innovative and groundbreaking work in reception studies; in its intellectual rigor and philological expertise; in the clarity of the writing; and in its forward looking, expansive perspective on reception studies (and Caribbean classical receptions) in particular and on the field of classical scholarship generally.”
American Journal of Philology
In the article, Dr Andújar argues that viewing La Odilea as a parody of Homer is overly simplistic as the text transforms the Homeric model in multiple ways, particularly through its use of Cuban dialect.
Building on her analysis of the novel’s language, Dr Andújar then considers the work in the context of the Cuban Revolution and its place in the “unique resonance” of the Odyssey in the postcolonial Caribbean.
“I’m delighted and honoured to have been awarded this prestigious prize. Despite being a relatively unknown text, Francisco Chofre’s Odilea raises key questions regarding vernacularity and canonicity which I think are central to the study of Classics and Classical receptions. I am grateful to the visionary leadership of Emily Greenwood, the guest editor of the special issue featuring my article, who invited me to pursue these questions in 2019.”
Dr Rosa Andújar, Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts
The AJP Best Article Prize, formerly known as the Gildersleeve Prize, is presented annually to the author of the best article published in the American Journal of Philology. The accolade is given out by John Hopkins University Press, and winners receive a $1,000 prize.