Scholars in modern languages and literature have enthusiastically embraced the use of the "personal voice," explicitly autobiographical intervention within the act of criticism. However, on both sides of the Atlantic, venerable traditions of classical scholarship have deterred classicists from engaging in such self-reflection as they offer new interpretation of Ancient Greek and Roman texts.

Indebted to the insights of feminist and post-structuralist writing, the use of the "personal voice" challenges the traditional notion of the objective critic who analyzes texts from a disinterested perspective.

Compromising Traditions is the first collection of theoretically informed autobiographical writing in the field of classical studies. The contributors represent a wide range of academic areas of specialization and theoretical approaches. All, however, share the goal of creating a more expansive and authoritative form of classical scholarship, which acknowledges distinctive differences amongst its practitioners as vital sources of strength.