Staff member of the month April 2024 is Camila de Moura Silva, who has joined us all the way from São Paulo! Camila is doing a joint PhD at Sao Paulo and UGent, and is currently doing research in Professor Koen De Temmerman’s research group Novel Saints. Julie Van Pelt chatted to Camila about her research, lots of travel, and living in Ghent.
Julie: Hi Camila! You joined our Section a few months ago in the context of your joint PhD between Ghent University and the University of São Paulo. Welcome to Ghent! We hope you have been able to adjust to Belgium, its habits, its weather, and its cuisine without too much difficulties?
Camila: Thank you very much! I am very glad to be here. Apart from the inherent toils of moving across the ocean, the arrival was smooth – even with rain! Of course, the Belgian weather is famed for its moodiness, but coming here I was happy to escape the ferocious Brazilian summer, which can be quite harsh, with temperatures well above 40 degrees. The city has been quite receptive – people are kind, there are cafes everywhere where I can spend hours just reading a book, and I love the sight of the canals. The feeling of being in a new place is very stimulating for me, and I love to explore the surroundings and discover precious new spots every day on my way to the University. About the cuisine, I can say I was pleasantly surprised!
When I first came across the volume Writing Biography in Greece and Rome, edited by UGent Professors Koen De Temmerman and Kristoffel Demoen, I was ecstatic. There, I found a fresh approach to ancient biography that would be the starting point for my future work, and eventually would lead me here!
Julie: Your PhD research focuses on a special type of ancient biography, Lives of poets. Can you tell us what fascinates you about this topic, and what you hope to achieve during your one-year stay in Ghent?
Camila: I had my first contact with the subject in a rather casual way, while working on the fragments of Aeschylus during my undergraduate years. I had an edition of Aeschylus’ fragments whose very first pages contained an anonymous Life, as it is usual for Lives of poets to be edited as testimonies – a practice whose history I will touch upon in my dissertation. My supervisor then, Professor Beatriz de Paoli, suggested that I translate it as part of my work – these are considered rather easy-to-read Greek texts –, and as I read it for the first time, I was immediately captured. The tale of how Aeschylus died in Sicily struck by a turtle thrown by an eagle, his mysterious epitaph, the account of people fainting at the theatre at the sight of the Erinyes, all fascinated me in a way that is difficult to describe. I felt like there was something in there ready to be discovered!
I kept on reading, and as I began to delve into it, I was surprised to find out that much of the available scholarship on the subject was quite negative, with a general view of the ancient biographers as faulty historians who derived biographical information from the poetic works of their biographees as a way of deceiving the readership. However crucial to the history of biographical reception, these works did not speak fully to my impressions as a reader and my incipient scholarly interests, as I felt there was much more to them. So, when I first came across the volume Writing Biography in Greece and Rome, edited by UGent Professors Koen De Temmerman and Kristoffel Demoen, I was ecstatic.
There, I found a fresh approach to ancient biography that would be the starting point for my future work, and eventually would lead me here! After investigating the influence of Aristotelian theory of tragedy in the Lives of the Classical tragedians in my Master’s thesis in Philosophy, I am now concerned with a much larger corpus, comprising the Lives of Greek Poets from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period, including the hundreds of entries on Greek poets in the Suda, which I am currently cataloging. The finds are exciting – just yesterday I ran into the account of an obscure epic poet called Epimenes, dated to the 7th century BCE, who is said to have been found after death with his body fully tattooed with letters, and other invaluable anecdotes. My project comprises two main steps – the establishment and translation of the corpus to Brazilian Portuguese, and a comprehensive study of the narrative patterns found throughout this varied collection of texts, regarding the poet’s education, oracles, divine and vocational dreams, fantastic deaths, humble and noble origins, just to mention a few.
At first, I thought it would be interesting to work exclusively on classifying these patterns while here in Ghent – but, as is usually the case, the work finds its own way. After my first presentation at the GCLA meeting on Hesychius of Miletus, to whom most biographical entries in the Suda are attributed, I realized I should profit from the theoretical expertise of my colleagues and professors here, and focus on further developing the conceptual framework of my dissertation. I also look very much forward to presenting and discussing the ongoing chapters in the near future! The opportunities for exchange and dialogue here are very encouraging, and it is great to be working among colleagues with similar interests.
The city has been quite receptive – people are kind, there are cafes everywhere where I can spend hours just reading a book, and I love the sight of the canals.
Julie: You are all the way from Brazil, and a little bird tells me you have lived in all of its major cities! We are curious to know more about your (academic) experience in a big city, compared to which Ghent, I’m sure, must seem just a tiny village!
Camila: Yes! You know, this is actually one of the things that drew me to Ghent. There are many challenges in doing research in a metropolis as busy as Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, where I have lived most of my life. I graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro having studied for many years on a campus located in an industrial neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city. It took me one hour and a half to get there every day by bus – and I was one of the lucky ones, many colleagues of mine took twice as long! The University of São Paulo campus is amazing, with lots of trees, lakes, and even wild capybaras, but it is also quite difficult to reach. It is important to bear in mind that mobility is a big issue for students and academic workers worldwide. One of its immediate consequences for post-grads is that we work from home a lot more, and may become isolated. When I was planning my trip here, I had the idea that Ghent would be a lot more manageable and that I would have more time to write – and I was right! Coming to work on foot or by bicycle is an absolute joy, which I am still becoming used to.
Julie: Is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to during your time in Ghent – perhaps any travel plans in Europe while you’re at it?
Camila: I am now preparing a talk that I will give at Humboldt University in June, getting ready for a Summer School at Crete University in Rethymno, which I am very excited about, and on the lookout for events and seminars that might be interesting to my work. I also have dear friends in Germany and Portugal whom I would like to visit, not to mention all the libraries and museums – I just hope I have enough time! But more importantly, I wish to create a pleasant work routine, wander around, watch the birds, and simply enjoy my time along the waters and buildings of this old and beautiful city.
Julie: We wish you lots of inspiring wanderings around Ghent – and good luck with the PhD!