Plutarch’s parallel structure of the Lives, pitting a Greek protagonist against a Roman hero, offers a fascinating array of interpretative possibilities where cultural and political resistance to Rome and Roman imperialism are two of its more interesting manifestations. This chapter suggests that Plutarch’s text, encoded with devices of figured speech (e.g. allegory, irony and innuendo), was meant to be read and understood by two distinct audiences simultaneously: a Greek readership and a Roman one. Thus, on one hand, to his Roman readers Plutarch can implicitly present the flaws of historical Greeks, which may come out through the overarching comparison, and which his typical Hellenocentric addressees might miss. On the other hand, the reading and circulation of Plutarch’s text would also constitute a sophisticated form of resistance to the contemporary imperial environment. The text therefore contains non-conformist elements which Roman readers completely overlooked. Two such subversive elements directed against Rome are discussed: (a) cultural resistance, with the employment of cross-cultural irony to propose the mismatch of Greek paideia in (barbaric) Rome; (b) political resistance through a subtle reading of the past, in particular the grafting of the Greco-Persian Wars onto the imperial reality and through a sophisticated comment on one instance of Greek active opposition to Rome.

While some heritage languages enjoy large numbers of speakers and vibrant communities, centuries-old and ongoing sociohistorical and sociolinguistic oppression has resulted in the extreme endangerment of many Indigenous languages. To counter this linguistic and cultural loss, a growing number of communities have engaged in language revitalization efforts that are tied to broader objectives of ethnic reclamation and cultural resistance, aiming not only to maintain but also to strengthen what has been lost. Heritage language revitalization is a long-term project that demands change and engagement across many aspects of community life, work that is ripe with tensions and contradictions. This chapter considers three recurrent questions in heritage language revitalization: what efforts should be prioritized in language revitalization, who should take responsibility in revitalizing a language, and how should revitalization efforts navigate the perceived need to establish linguistic norms and standards while concomitantly supporting linguistic diversity. To date, these questions have been described as tensions or problems that reveal conflicting priorities, often the result of historical inequalities, and that frequently hinder language revitalization efforts. Rather than framing these questions as problems, the present chapter considers how communities have responded to these challenges to create new opportunities for collaboration and new approaches that embrace ambiguity and pluralism.

With the aim of unravelling the role of popular culture in contemporary Caribbean writing, this essay focuses on how calypso, carnival and dancehall cultures have been used in the work of post-millennial Caribbean writers to examine issues of gender and sexuality. Caribbean writers employ innovative textual strategies, which draw thematically and stylistically from music and carnival. These textual strategies challenge the perceived boundaries between oral and scribal and between ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultures, and they can create a platform from which to challenge misogyny, patriarchy and social injustice in the contemporary Caribbean and beyond.