Masculinity and Ancient Rome in the Victorian Cultural Imagination

Masculinity and Ancient Rome in the Victorian Cultural Imagination

Author: Laura Eastlake

Publisher: Classical Presences

Published: 2019-01-22

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0198833032

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Masculinity and Ancient Rome in the Victorian Cultural Imagination examines Victorian receptions of ancient Rome, with a specific focus on how those receptions were deployed to create useable models of masculinity. Romans in Victorian literature are at once pagan persecutors, pious statesmen, pleasure-seeking decadents, and heroes of empire, and these manifold and often contradictory representations are used as vehicles equally to capture the martial virtue of Wellington and to condemn the deviance and degeneracy of Oscar Wilde. In the works of Thomas Macaulay, Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope, H. Rider Haggard, and Rudyard Kipling, among others, Rome emerges as a contested space with an array of possible scripts and signifiers which can be used to frame masculine ideals, or to vilify perceived deviance from those ideals, though with a value and significance often very different to ancient Greek models. Sitting at the intersection of reception studies, gender studies, and interdisciplinary literary and cultural studies across discourses ranging from education and politics, this volume offers the first comprehensive examination of the importance of ancient Rome as a cultural touchstone for nineteenth-century manliness and Victorian codifications of masculinity.


Book Synopsis Masculinity and Ancient Rome in the Victorian Cultural Imagination by : Laura Eastlake

Download or read book Masculinity and Ancient Rome in the Victorian Cultural Imagination written by Laura Eastlake and published by Classical Presences. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Masculinity and Ancient Rome in the Victorian Cultural Imagination examines Victorian receptions of ancient Rome, with a specific focus on how those receptions were deployed to create useable models of masculinity. Romans in Victorian literature are at once pagan persecutors, pious statesmen, pleasure-seeking decadents, and heroes of empire, and these manifold and often contradictory representations are used as vehicles equally to capture the martial virtue of Wellington and to condemn the deviance and degeneracy of Oscar Wilde. In the works of Thomas Macaulay, Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope, H. Rider Haggard, and Rudyard Kipling, among others, Rome emerges as a contested space with an array of possible scripts and signifiers which can be used to frame masculine ideals, or to vilify perceived deviance from those ideals, though with a value and significance often very different to ancient Greek models. Sitting at the intersection of reception studies, gender studies, and interdisciplinary literary and cultural studies across discourses ranging from education and politics, this volume offers the first comprehensive examination of the importance of ancient Rome as a cultural touchstone for nineteenth-century manliness and Victorian codifications of masculinity.

A People's History of Classics

A People's History of Classics

Author: Edith Hall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-02-26

Total Pages: 586

ISBN-13: 1315446588

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A People’s History of Classics explores the influence of the classical past on the lives of working-class people, whose voices have been almost completely excluded from previous histories of classical scholarship and pedagogy, in Britain and Ireland from the late 17th to the early 20th century. This volume challenges the prevailing scholarly and public assumption that the intimate link between the exclusive intellectual culture of British elites and the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans and their languages meant that working-class culture was a ‘Classics-Free Zone’. Making use of diverse sources of information, both published and unpublished, in archives, museums and libraries across the United Kingdom and Ireland, Hall and Stead examine the working-class experience of classical culture from the Bill of Rights in 1689 to the outbreak of World War II. They analyse a huge volume of data, from individuals, groups, regions and activities, in a huge range of sources including memoirs, autobiographies, Trade Union collections, poetry, factory archives, artefacts and documents in regional museums. This allows a deeper understanding not only of the many examples of interaction with the Classics, but also what these cultural interactions signified to the working poor: from the promise of social advancement, to propaganda exploited by the elites, to covert and overt class war. A People’s History of Classics offers a fascinating and insightful exploration of the many and varied engagements with Greece and Rome among the working classes in Britain and Ireland, and is a must-read not only for classicists, but also for students of British and Irish social, intellectual and political history in this period. Further, it brings new historical depth and perspectives to public debates around the future of classical education, and should be read by anyone with an interest in educational policy in Britain today.


Book Synopsis A People's History of Classics by : Edith Hall

Download or read book A People's History of Classics written by Edith Hall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-26 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A People’s History of Classics explores the influence of the classical past on the lives of working-class people, whose voices have been almost completely excluded from previous histories of classical scholarship and pedagogy, in Britain and Ireland from the late 17th to the early 20th century. This volume challenges the prevailing scholarly and public assumption that the intimate link between the exclusive intellectual culture of British elites and the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans and their languages meant that working-class culture was a ‘Classics-Free Zone’. Making use of diverse sources of information, both published and unpublished, in archives, museums and libraries across the United Kingdom and Ireland, Hall and Stead examine the working-class experience of classical culture from the Bill of Rights in 1689 to the outbreak of World War II. They analyse a huge volume of data, from individuals, groups, regions and activities, in a huge range of sources including memoirs, autobiographies, Trade Union collections, poetry, factory archives, artefacts and documents in regional museums. This allows a deeper understanding not only of the many examples of interaction with the Classics, but also what these cultural interactions signified to the working poor: from the promise of social advancement, to propaganda exploited by the elites, to covert and overt class war. A People’s History of Classics offers a fascinating and insightful exploration of the many and varied engagements with Greece and Rome among the working classes in Britain and Ireland, and is a must-read not only for classicists, but also for students of British and Irish social, intellectual and political history in this period. Further, it brings new historical depth and perspectives to public debates around the future of classical education, and should be read by anyone with an interest in educational policy in Britain today.

Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire

Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire

Author: Charles Goldberg

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-30

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1000299007

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This volume explores the role that republican political participation played in forging elite Roman masculinity. It situates familiarly "manly" traits like militarism, aggressive sexuality, and the pursuit of power within a political system based on power sharing and cooperation. In deliberations in the Senate, at social gatherings, and on military campaign, displays of consensus with other men greased the wheels of social discourse and built elite comradery. Through literary sources and inscriptions that offer censorious or affirmative appraisal of male behavior from the Middle and Late Republic (ca. 300–31 BCE) to the Principate or Early Empire (ca. 100 CE), this book shows how the vir bonus, or "good man," the Roman persona of male aristocratic excellence, modulated imperatives for personal distinction and military and sexual violence with political cooperation and moral exemplarity. While the advent of one-man rule in the Empire transformed political power relations, ideals forged in the Republic adapted to the new climate and provided a coherent model of masculinity for emperor and senator alike. Scholars often paint a picture of Republic and Principate as distinct landscapes, but enduring ideals of male self-fashioning constitute an important continuity. Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire provides a fascinating insight into the intertwined nature of masculinity and political power for anyone interested in Roman political and social history, and those working on gender in the ancient world more broadly.


Book Synopsis Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire by : Charles Goldberg

Download or read book Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire written by Charles Goldberg and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-30 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the role that republican political participation played in forging elite Roman masculinity. It situates familiarly "manly" traits like militarism, aggressive sexuality, and the pursuit of power within a political system based on power sharing and cooperation. In deliberations in the Senate, at social gatherings, and on military campaign, displays of consensus with other men greased the wheels of social discourse and built elite comradery. Through literary sources and inscriptions that offer censorious or affirmative appraisal of male behavior from the Middle and Late Republic (ca. 300–31 BCE) to the Principate or Early Empire (ca. 100 CE), this book shows how the vir bonus, or "good man," the Roman persona of male aristocratic excellence, modulated imperatives for personal distinction and military and sexual violence with political cooperation and moral exemplarity. While the advent of one-man rule in the Empire transformed political power relations, ideals forged in the Republic adapted to the new climate and provided a coherent model of masculinity for emperor and senator alike. Scholars often paint a picture of Republic and Principate as distinct landscapes, but enduring ideals of male self-fashioning constitute an important continuity. Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire provides a fascinating insight into the intertwined nature of masculinity and political power for anyone interested in Roman political and social history, and those working on gender in the ancient world more broadly.

Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity

Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity

Author: Daniel Orrells

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-06-09

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0191617423

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Since the middle of the eighteenth century, the classical world has been seen as foundational and exemplary to Western civilization. However, the Greeks never invaded and colonised western and northern Europe the way the Romans did, and, conversely, Greece was a difficult place to reach for modern travellers well into the nineteenth century. Inevitably, therefore, the links with ancient Greece were a product of the imagination: an exemplary civilization, in its politics, arts, and culture. There was one problem, however: the Greeks, it seemed, enjoyed pederastic relations. And not only this: one of Athens' most famous teachers, Socrates, was attracted to boys. Daniel Orrells offers a fresh, original examination of how modern thinkers in Germany and Britain, who were so invested in a model of history that directly traced the European present back to an ancient Greek past, negotiated the tricky issue of ancient Greek pederasty.


Book Synopsis Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity by : Daniel Orrells

Download or read book Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity written by Daniel Orrells and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the middle of the eighteenth century, the classical world has been seen as foundational and exemplary to Western civilization. However, the Greeks never invaded and colonised western and northern Europe the way the Romans did, and, conversely, Greece was a difficult place to reach for modern travellers well into the nineteenth century. Inevitably, therefore, the links with ancient Greece were a product of the imagination: an exemplary civilization, in its politics, arts, and culture. There was one problem, however: the Greeks, it seemed, enjoyed pederastic relations. And not only this: one of Athens' most famous teachers, Socrates, was attracted to boys. Daniel Orrells offers a fresh, original examination of how modern thinkers in Germany and Britain, who were so invested in a model of history that directly traced the European present back to an ancient Greek past, negotiated the tricky issue of ancient Greek pederasty.

Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity

Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity

Author: Kelly Olson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-05-08

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1317392523

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In Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity, Olson argues that clothing functioned as part of the process of communication by which elite male influence, masculinity, and sexuality were made known and acknowledged, and furthermore that these concepts interconnected in socially significant ways. This volume also sets out the details of masculine dress from literary and artistic evidence and the connection of clothing to rank, status, and ritual. This is the first monograph in English to draw together the myriad evidence for male dress in the Roman world, and examine it as evidence for men’s self-presentation, status, and social convention.


Book Synopsis Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity by : Kelly Olson

Download or read book Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity written by Kelly Olson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-05-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity, Olson argues that clothing functioned as part of the process of communication by which elite male influence, masculinity, and sexuality were made known and acknowledged, and furthermore that these concepts interconnected in socially significant ways. This volume also sets out the details of masculine dress from literary and artistic evidence and the connection of clothing to rank, status, and ritual. This is the first monograph in English to draw together the myriad evidence for male dress in the Roman world, and examine it as evidence for men’s self-presentation, status, and social convention.

When Men Were Men

When Men Were Men

Author: Lin Foxhall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1134686773

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When Men Were Men questions the deep-set assumption that men's history speaks and has always spoken for all of us, by exploring the history of classical antiquity as an explicitly masculine story. With a preface by Sarah Pomeroy, this study employs different methodologies and focuses on a broad range of source materials, periods and places.


Book Synopsis When Men Were Men by : Lin Foxhall

Download or read book When Men Were Men written by Lin Foxhall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Men Were Men questions the deep-set assumption that men's history speaks and has always spoken for all of us, by exploring the history of classical antiquity as an explicitly masculine story. With a preface by Sarah Pomeroy, this study employs different methodologies and focuses on a broad range of source materials, periods and places.

Dandies and Desert Saints

Dandies and Desert Saints

Author: James Eli Adams

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780801482083

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1. Dandies and Prophets: Spectacles of Victorian Masculinity -- 2. "A Sort of Masonry": Secrecy and "Manliness" in Early Victorian Brotherhoods -- 3. Imagining the Science of Renunciation: Manhood and Abasement in Kingsley and Tennyson -- 4. Muscular Aestheticism: Masculine Authority and the Male Body -- 5. Gentleman, Dandy, Priest: Masks and Masculinity in Pater's Aestheticism.


Book Synopsis Dandies and Desert Saints by : James Eli Adams

Download or read book Dandies and Desert Saints written by James Eli Adams and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1. Dandies and Prophets: Spectacles of Victorian Masculinity -- 2. "A Sort of Masonry": Secrecy and "Manliness" in Early Victorian Brotherhoods -- 3. Imagining the Science of Renunciation: Manhood and Abasement in Kingsley and Tennyson -- 4. Muscular Aestheticism: Masculine Authority and the Male Body -- 5. Gentleman, Dandy, Priest: Masks and Masculinity in Pater's Aestheticism.

The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus

The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus

Author: Melanie Racette-Campbell

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres

Published: 2023-07-25

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0299343502

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The political rupture caused by the ascension of Augustus Caesar in ancient Rome, which ended the centuries-old Republic, had drastic consequences for the performance and understanding of masculinity in a markedly androcentric society. Previously, masculinity was established and maintained through the frame of competition, in both public and private spheres—but the total accumulation of power by one man foreclosed most avenues of, and even appreciation for, competition. Melanie Racette-Campbell examines how Rome’s elite men navigated this liminal moment between Republic and Empire, and shows that the process was neither linear nor uniform. Already in the late Republic, prior to Augustus’s rise to power, cracks in the hegemonic concept of masculinity were starting to show. Careful reading of contemporary texts reveals a decades-long process as tumultuous and unsteady as the political events they echoed, one in which multiple and competing strategies for reconceiving the nature of masculinity were tested, employed, discarded, and adopted in a complex public-private discourse. The eventual reconstitution of a definition of Roman manhood was not easily agreed upon. Masculinity in both the Republic and the Empire are well studied subjects, but by shining a light on the precise moment of transition Racette-Campbell unveils the precise complexity, contours, and nuances of the Augustan crisis of masculinity.


Book Synopsis The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus by : Melanie Racette-Campbell

Download or read book The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus written by Melanie Racette-Campbell and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2023-07-25 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political rupture caused by the ascension of Augustus Caesar in ancient Rome, which ended the centuries-old Republic, had drastic consequences for the performance and understanding of masculinity in a markedly androcentric society. Previously, masculinity was established and maintained through the frame of competition, in both public and private spheres—but the total accumulation of power by one man foreclosed most avenues of, and even appreciation for, competition. Melanie Racette-Campbell examines how Rome’s elite men navigated this liminal moment between Republic and Empire, and shows that the process was neither linear nor uniform. Already in the late Republic, prior to Augustus’s rise to power, cracks in the hegemonic concept of masculinity were starting to show. Careful reading of contemporary texts reveals a decades-long process as tumultuous and unsteady as the political events they echoed, one in which multiple and competing strategies for reconceiving the nature of masculinity were tested, employed, discarded, and adopted in a complex public-private discourse. The eventual reconstitution of a definition of Roman manhood was not easily agreed upon. Masculinity in both the Republic and the Empire are well studied subjects, but by shining a light on the precise moment of transition Racette-Campbell unveils the precise complexity, contours, and nuances of the Augustan crisis of masculinity.

Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity

Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity

Author: City University of New York Craig A. Williams Assistant Professor of Classics Brooklyn College

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1999-05-12

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0195354516

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This book provides a thoroughly documented discussion of ancient Roman ideologies of masculinity and sexuality with a focus on ancient representations of sexual experience between males. It gathers a wide range of evidence from the second century B.C. to the second century A.D.--above all from such literary texts as courtroom speeches, love poetry, philosophy, epigram, and history, but also graffiti and other inscriptions as well as artistic artifacts--and uses that evidence to reconstruct the contexts within which Roman texts were created and had their meaning. The book takes as its starting point the thesis that in order to understand the Roman material, we must make the effort to set aside any preconceptions we might have regarding sexuality, masculinity, and effeminacy. Williams' book argues in detail that for the writers and readers of Roman texts, the important distinctions were drawn not between homosexual and heterosexual, but between free and slave, dominant and subordinate, masculin and effeminate as conceived in specifically Roman terms. Other important questions addressed by this book include the differences between Roman and Greek practices and ideologies; the influence exerted by distinctively Roman ideals of austerity; the ways in which deviations from the norms of masculine sexual practice were negotiated both in the arena of public discourse and in real men's lives; the relationship between the rhetoric of "nature" and representations of sexual practices; and the extent to which same-sex marriages were publicly accepted.


Book Synopsis Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity by : City University of New York Craig A. Williams Assistant Professor of Classics Brooklyn College

Download or read book Roman Homosexuality : Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity written by City University of New York Craig A. Williams Assistant Professor of Classics Brooklyn College and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1999-05-12 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a thoroughly documented discussion of ancient Roman ideologies of masculinity and sexuality with a focus on ancient representations of sexual experience between males. It gathers a wide range of evidence from the second century B.C. to the second century A.D.--above all from such literary texts as courtroom speeches, love poetry, philosophy, epigram, and history, but also graffiti and other inscriptions as well as artistic artifacts--and uses that evidence to reconstruct the contexts within which Roman texts were created and had their meaning. The book takes as its starting point the thesis that in order to understand the Roman material, we must make the effort to set aside any preconceptions we might have regarding sexuality, masculinity, and effeminacy. Williams' book argues in detail that for the writers and readers of Roman texts, the important distinctions were drawn not between homosexual and heterosexual, but between free and slave, dominant and subordinate, masculin and effeminate as conceived in specifically Roman terms. Other important questions addressed by this book include the differences between Roman and Greek practices and ideologies; the influence exerted by distinctively Roman ideals of austerity; the ways in which deviations from the norms of masculine sexual practice were negotiated both in the arena of public discourse and in real men's lives; the relationship between the rhetoric of "nature" and representations of sexual practices; and the extent to which same-sex marriages were publicly accepted.

Roman Manliness

Roman Manliness

Author: Myles McDonnell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-09-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780521118934

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Recent studies of ancient Roman masculinities have concentrated on the private aspects of the subject, particularly sexuality, and have drawn conclusions from a narrow field of reference, usually rhetorical practice. In contrast, this book examines the public and the most important aspect of Roman masculinity: Manliness as represented by the concept of "virtus". Using traditional historical, philological, and archaeological analysis, combined with socio-linguistics and gender studies, it presents a comprehensive picture of how Roman manliness developed from the middle to the late Republic period.


Book Synopsis Roman Manliness by : Myles McDonnell

Download or read book Roman Manliness written by Myles McDonnell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent studies of ancient Roman masculinities have concentrated on the private aspects of the subject, particularly sexuality, and have drawn conclusions from a narrow field of reference, usually rhetorical practice. In contrast, this book examines the public and the most important aspect of Roman masculinity: Manliness as represented by the concept of "virtus". Using traditional historical, philological, and archaeological analysis, combined with socio-linguistics and gender studies, it presents a comprehensive picture of how Roman manliness developed from the middle to the late Republic period.