Alastair J. L. Blanshard

Sex (eBook, ePUB)

Vice and Love from Antiquity to Modernity

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Sex: Vice and Love from Antiquity to Modernity examines the impact that sexual fantasies about the classical world have had on modern Western culture. * Offers a wealth of information on sex in the Greek and Roman world * Correlates the study of classical sexuality with modern Western cultures * Identifies key influential themes in the evolution of erotic discourse from antiquity to modernity * Presents a serious and thought-provoking topic with great accessibility

Produktdetails

• Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
• Seitenzahl: 240
• Erscheinungstermin: 28. Juli 2015
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781119062530
• Artikelnr.: 43588922

Autorenporträt

Alastair J. L. Blanshard is a senior lecturer in Classics & Ancient History at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Hercules: A Heroic Life (2005).

Inhaltsangabe

List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Part I Roman Vice 1 1 Introduction 3 2 Naked Bodies 7 An Introduction (less than successful) to the Naked Body 7 The Naked Body in Greece 14 Naked Romans 21 The Love of Art and the Art of Love 28 3 Obscene Texts 34 Illustrating the Unspeakable 34 Talking Dirty 40 4 Erotic Rites 48 The Myth of the Orgy 48 Locating the Erotic in Roman Religion 55 5 Imperial Biography 65 The Private Lives of the Caesars 65 Explaining Roman Gossip Culture 79 Part II Greek Love 89 6 Introduction 91 What is 'Greek Love'? Scenes from a Courtroom I 92 7 Greece 97 The Loves of Hellas 97 The Platonic Vision 99 8 Rome and the West 109 Greece under Rome and Rome under Greece 109 Greek Love Burns Briefly, but Brightly 119 9 Renaissance and Enlightenment 124 Giving Birth in the Beautiful 124 The Pursuit of Love 135 10 Nineteenth Century and Beyond 143 Greek Love Triumphant 143 Sapphic Love 149 A Mixed Legacy: Greek Love in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 159 11 Epilogue 164 Scenes from a Courtroom II 164 Notes and Further Reading 166 Bibliography 190 Index 205

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List of Illustrations

Preface

Part I Roman Vice

1. Introduction

2. Naked Bodies

3. Obscene Texts

4. Erotic Rites

5. Imperial Biography

Part II Greek Love

6. Introduction

7. Greece

8. Rome and the West

9. Renaissance and Enlightenment

10. Nineteenth-Century and Beyond

11. Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Rezensionen

"The book is helpfully provocative and certainly helps toexplain the enduring appeal of Grecece and Rome in contemporary(erotic) culture." (INTAMS review - Journal for theStudy of Marriage & Spirituality, 18 January 2012)"Recommended. Graduate students/faculty." (Choice, 1 March 2011)

"This book is enjoyable and informative . . . it would be ofespecial interest to students of reception studies and the historyof sexuality, but there is also much material that is useful to theclassical scholar". (Bmcreview, 26 April 2011)

"It is because of the personal narratives - as well as thesophistication, wit and learning of the whole enterprise - thatthis book is highly recommended reading." (Times Higher Education,30 October 2010)"This is a sharply witty and provocative guide to ancient sexualtransgression - and to our modern fantasies, dreams and projectionsabout Greek love and Roman orgies." Simon Goldhill, CambridgeUniversity

"From George Washington unclad as a Roman prince, to thecult of Plato's Symposium in nineteenth-centuryEngland, to cinematographic fantasies of Roman orgies, AlastairBlanshard explores how the Moderns became fascinated with classicalsex, Roman vice and Greek love. Often ironic, never naive andalways a pleasure, this book reveals the enduring appeal of Greeceand Rome in our erotic culture."
Giulia Sissa, University of California at Los Angeles