This dynamic collection of essays by international film scholars and classicists addresses the provocative representation of sexuality in the ancient world on screen. A critical reader on approaches used to examine sexuality in classical settings, contributors use case studies from films and television series spanning from the 1920s to the present.
This dynamic collection of essays by international film scholars and classicists addresses the provocative representation of sexuality in the ancient world on screen. A critical reader on approaches used to examine sexuality in classical settings, contributors use case studies from films and television series spanning from the 1920s to the present.
Antony and Cleopatra, sex, war, and politics: Rome, Season Two is explored in this exciting collection of original essays.Set in the turbulent years after Caesars assassination in 44 BC, Season Two of the HBO-BBC series Rome lays bare a city shaken by the violent power struggle between Octavian, Caesars adopted son and heir, and Mark Antony, his most trusted general, bound in the seductive spell of Cleopatra. Rome, Season Two: Trial and Triumph is the first academic volume to explore the second season of this critically acclaimed and commercially successful drama. It brings together seventeen pioneering and provocative essays written by an international cast of leading classical scholars and media critics. Focusing on the series historical framework, visual and narrative style, thematic overtones, and interaction with contemporary popular culture, this collection also engages with the authenticity of the production and considers its place in the tradition of epic films and television series set in ancient Rome. This volume is both scholarly and entertaining and will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars in Classics and Ancient History as well as Film and Media Studies.a Monica S. Cyrino is Professor of Classics at the University of New Mexico, USA.
Examines women whose influence was positive, as well as those whose reputations were more notoriousSupremely well researched from many different historical sourcesSuperbly illustrated with photographs and drawings Women in Ancient Greece is a much-needed analysis of how women behaved in Greek society, how they were regarded, and the restrictions imposed on their actions. Given that ancient Greece was very much a man’s world, most books on ancient Greek society tend to focus on men; this book redresses the imbalance by shining the spotlight on that neglected other half. Women had significant roles to play in Greek society and culture – this book illuminates those roles. Women in Ancient Greece asks the controversial question: how far is the assumption that women were secluded and excluded just an illusion? It answers it by exploring the treatment of women in Greek myth and epic; their treatment by playwrights, poets and philosophers; and the actions of liberated women in Minoan Crete, Sparta and the Hellenistic era when some elite women were politically prominent. It covers women in Athens, Sparta and in other city states; describes women writers, philosophers, artists and scientists; it explores love, marriage and adultery, the virtuous and the meretricious; and the roles women played in death and religion. Crucially, the book is people-based, drawing much of its evidence and many of its conclusions from lives lived by historical Greek women.
A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities presents a comprehensive collection of original essays relating to aspects of gender and sexuality in the classical world. Views the various practices and discursive contexts of sexuality systematically and holistically Discusses Greece and Rome in each chapter, with sensitivity to the continuities and differences between the two classical civilizations Addresses the classical influence on the understanding of later ages and religion Covers artistic and literary genres, various social environments of sexual conduct, and the technical disciplines of medicine, magic, physiognomy, and dream interpretation Features contributions from more than 40 top international scholars
thersites is an international open access journal for innovative transdisciplinary classical studies edited by Annemarie Ambühl, Filippo Carlà-Uhink, Christian Rollinger and Christine Walde. thersites expands classical reception studies by publishing original scholarship free of charge and by reflecting on Greco-Roman antiquity as present phenomenon and diachronic culture that is part of today’s transcultural and highly diverse world. Antiquity, in our understanding, does not merely belong to the past, but is always experienced and engaged in the present. thersites contributes to the critical review on methods, theories, approaches and subjects in classical scholarship, which currently seems to be awkwardly divided between traditional perspectives and cultural turns. thersites brings together scholars, writers, essayists, artists and all kinds of agents in the culture industry to get a better understanding of how antiquity constitutes a part of today’s culture and (trans-)forms our present. thersites appears twice yearly and publishes regular issues as well as specially-themed and guest-edited issues focused on individual subjects and questions. Call for papers are released regularly and long in advance on our homepage (https://thersites-journal.de/) and on other pages that feature announcements for classical studies (APA, Mommsen-Gesellschaft etc.).
Television has historically been largely ineffective at representing queerness in its various forms. In the 21st century, however, as same-sex couples have seen increasing mainstream acceptance, and a broader range of queer characters has appeared in the media, it seems natural to assume TV portrayals of queerness have become more enlightened. But have they? This collection of fresh essays analyzes queerness as depicted on TV from 2000 to the present. Examining Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The L Word, Modern Family, The New Normal, Queer as Folk, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, RuPaul's Drag Race, Spartacus and Will & Grace, among other series, the contributors demonstrate that queer characters in general have achieved visibility at the expense of minimizing much of their queerness--with a few eye-opening exceptions.
Greece and Rome have long featured in books for children and teens, whether through the genres of historical fiction, fantasy, mystery stories or mythological compendiums. These depictions and adaptations of the Ancient World have varied at different times, however, in accordance with changes in societies and cultures. This book investigates the varying receptions and ideological manipulations of the classical world in children’s literature. Its subtitle, Heroes and Eagles, reflects the two most common ways in which this reception appears, namely in the forms of the portrayal of the Greek heroic world of classical mythology on the one hand, and of the Roman imperial presence on the other. Both of these are ideologically loaded approaches intended to educate the young reader.
This volume examines cinematic representations of ancient Greek women from the realms of myth and history. It discusses how these female figures are resurrected on the big screen by different filmmakers during different historical moments, and are therefore embedded within a narrative which serves various purposes, depending on the director of the film, its screenwriters, the studio, the country of its origin, and the sociopolitical context at the time of its production. Using a diverse array of hermeneutic approaches (such as gender theory, feminist criticism, psychoanalysis, viewer-response theory, and personal voice criticism), the essays aim to cast light on cinema's investments in the classical past and decode the mechanisms whereby the women under examination are extracted from their original context and are brought to life to serve as vehicles for the articulation of modern ideas, concerns, and cultural trends. The volume thus aims to investigate not only how antiquity on the screen depicts, and in this process distorts, compresses, contests, and revises, antiquity on the page but also, more crucially, why the medium follows such eclectic representational strategies vis-à-vis the classical world.
