Dr. Olivier Demerre is a FWO junior postdoctoral research fellow based at Ghent University. He has completed a dissertation on the possible influence of Latin literature on the characters posing as praeceptores amoris in the ancient Greek love novels of Longus and Achilles Tatius (funded by the FWO project From Latin to Greek; sup. Koen De Temmerman and co-sup. Yanick Maes). His current project investigates how courtroom scenes in ancient novels may improve our understanding of the concept of fiction in Antiquity. He is a member of Novel Saints: Ancient Fiction and Hagiography Research Centre.
Olivier has obtained a bachelor in Greek, Latin and French Literature (“Licence de Lettres”), a master in Greek and Latin literature and culture (“Master Poétique et anthropologie culturelle”) from the University of Lille and a PhD degree from Ghent University. He has undertaken research stays in Swansea (as an Erasmus student, M.A. Ancient Narrative) and in Cambridge (visiting member of St John's college).
Oliver’s research interests include Latin imperial literature, Roman Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin prose fictions, Augustan poetry, Greek and Latin bucolic poetry, representations of love in ancient literature, didactic poetry, education in Antiquity, ancient rhetoric, ancient criticism, the interface between rhetorical theory and literature, conceptualizations and definitions of style in Imperial period, and the Hermogenian corpus.
