Seduction and Power: Antiquity in the Visual and Performing Arts

Review

“This collection of essays is the second publication to emerge from the innovative Imagines Project, a think tank of European scholars and practitioners devoted to the study of classical reception in the diverse media of the visual and performing arts. The impact and importance of the volume must instead be considered in conjunction with the entire output of the Imagines Project. . The fact that reception organically inspires innovative delivery strategies testifies to the seductive nature of the subject matter and the methodologies for its study, and to the powerful potential of the Imagines Project. Readers interested in the future of reception studies should bookmark the Project's webpage and stay tuned.” ―Genevieve S. Gessert, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Product Description

This volume focuses on the reception of antiquity in the performing and visual arts from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. It explores the tensions and relations of gender, sexuality, eroticism and power in reception. Such universal themes dictated plots and characters of myth and drama, but also served to portray historical figures, events and places from Classical history. Their changing reception and reinterpretation across time has created stereotypes, models of virtue or immoral conduct, that blend the original features from the ancient world with a diverse range of visual and performing arts of the modern era. The volume deconstructs these traditions and shows how arts of different periods interlink to form and transmit these images to modern audiences and viewers. Drawing on contributions from across Europe and the United States, a trademark of the book is the inclusive treatment of all the arts beyond the traditional limits of academic disciplines.

About the Author

Silke Knippschild is a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Bristol, UK. Her main research interests lie in the field of cross-cultural influences between ancient western Asia, Greece and Rome.

Marta Garcia Morcillo is a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Wales, Lampeter. She co-edited the volume Hellas on Screen: Cinematic Receptions of Ancient History, Literature and Myth which was published in 2008.