Soundscapes of Ancient Fiction: Gender and Ecology of Sound in the Imperial Novel

Dr Francesca Modini

Lewis-Gibson Visiting Fellow, University College, Dublin

Dr Francesca Modini is a specialist in Greek literature and culture under the Roman Empire, with particular interests in lyric poetry, music, sound and classical reception. Her research explores how sound and performance illuminate questions of identity, politics and cultural authority in the imperial Greek world. Her first monograph, Aelius Aristides and the Poetics of Lyric in Imperial Greek Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2025), offers a major reassessment of the place of lyric traditions within imperial literary culture. A former Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, she is currently Teaching Fellow in Greek Language and Literature at the University of Warwick and has presented her research widely in Europe and North America.

About the project

Dr Modini’s project, Soundscapes of Ancient Fiction: Gender and Ecology of Sound in the Imperial Novel, develops a new approach to Greek prose fiction by placing sound at the centre of its literary and cultural worlds. While studies of the ancient novel have often concentrated on vision, space and narrative perspective, the project asks what becomes visible—or audible—when these texts are approached through voice, music, noise and silence.

The research follows three interconnected strands. First, it examines the sonic agency of male and female characters, exploring how speaking, singing and music-making articulate and reshape gender relations. Secondly, it considers the relationship between human and non-human sound. Metamorphosis can transform a character’s capacity to speak or make sound, while objects, animals and disembodied voices may themselves acquire distinctive forms of agency. These interactions reveal the complex ‘sonic ecologies’ through which ancient novels imagine relationships between human beings and the more-than-human world.

A third strand traces the afterlife of these soundscapes in modern European performance. Ancient novels supplied material for works including The Magic Flute, Aida and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, allowing the project to explore how ancient narratives of sound were reimagined through opera, ballet and musical performance.

During her Lewis-Gibson Visiting Fellowship, Dr Modini will focus particularly on Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon, investigating natural and object sounds and the sonic agency of non-human actors. This work will form a methodological foundation for the wider book project and contribute to broader questions about gender, environment, performance and reception in imperial Greek literature.

Meet our other 2026–27 Fellows

Related event: Greek Dialogues - Novel soundscapes from imperial Greece to the modern stage