BA Witwatersrand MA Oxon PhD St Andrews

Research Interests: Greek and Latin poetry; translation and reception of Classical poetry

After graduating with a BA in Greek and Latin from the University of the Witwatersrand, Richard Whitaker received an MA in Literae Humaniores (Classical literature & philosophy) from Oxford (Balliol College). He was awarded the PhD by St Andrews University for a thesis on Roman love elegy and Hellenistic poetry. As well as many reviews, he has published articles and books on Roman poetry, oral literature, the comparative study of oral traditions of Ancient Greece and Southern Africa, and the influence of Greek and Roman literature on 20^th century literature in English. Among his books are: Myth and Personal Experience in Roman Love-Elegy (Göttingen 1983); Marcel Jousse, The Oral Style, translated from the French by Whitaker and Sienaert (New York & London 1990; republished by Routledge 2015); The Iliad of Homer: A Southern African Translation (Cape Town 2012); The Odyssey of Homer: A Southern African Translation (Cape Town 2017); Catullus: Selected Lyric Poems (Cape Town 2020; with Douglas Reid Skinner).

Publications