This chapter provides an accessible overview of the wide, diverse and ever-expanding field of classical reception studies. It begins with an overview of the word ‘reception’ and its origins in philosophical hermeneutics, and surveys a series of critiques that have been made of the word’s usefulness. Then the chapter makes three claims. First, allusions to antiquity have frequently occurred within a broader matrix of challenge and contestation, and so the critical analysis of classical reception should pay attention to voices that challenge the values accorded to classical literature, as well as those who embrace them. Second, a focus on the history of education can help us see classical allusion as a social challenge rather than simply a submission to prevailing literary or cultural norms. Third, the study of reception is at its most vital as a mode of communication outside classics, whether to the public, to students or to scholars in other fields. Ultimately, reception studies make up a vital part of the future of classical scholarship, and yet questions remain about whether the word ‘reception’ best communicates the subject’s intellectual range and ambition.

Chapter Eight seeks to approach the intangible subject of the cognitive map for literature from a number of overlapping directions which all point towards a particular model for readerly mapping. Approaching the subject through reader-response theory, ancient models of memory-mapping, and cognitive map theory, the chapter defines a doubled (combined) model of mapping for literary space and place. The book concludes by considering ways forward for the mapping of literature in and through the digital medium in the light of this cognitive model. (83)