Suchergebnisse

This book radically re-examines Europe's imaginaries of its origin in the ancient Greek world. Extracting central concepts of critical theory in its widest sense - beyond the Frankfurt School - like the human, force, spirit and domination, it allies them to characters, mythologies and motifs in ancient thought. Just as the stories of Achilles, Helen and Odysseus have become central to our modes of self-understanding, so we can also examine the roots and routes of the concepts of social theory out of the ancient earth and its myths. An important book for scholars and students of critical theory, social theory, aesthetic theory and the history of the human sciences, it alerts us to the catastrophe that we are facing in the 21st century - a catastrophe of domination and ecological collapse that has its origins in the ancient world and the ways in which it began to define a certain sense of humanness. Considering the artistic production of the ancient world in relation to the thought of Adorno, Critical Theory and the Classical World argues that it is only by understanding the persistence of the haunted motifs of the past into the present that we can begin to re-forge our critical theory of society and re-found our social formations on a new basis.

"Warfare has long been recognised as central to a proper understanding of the classical world, where, as the philosopher Heraclitus observed, war was 'both king and father of all.' More recently, however, an approach to the ancient world solely in such terms has been challenged. War was indeed pervasive, and was a prominent theme among poets and historians; but there was also a distinct value placed on peace, which might be understood not only as the absence of war but as an ideal to be imagined, instituted, and even imposed. This volume places peace at the centre of its concerns and explores classical ideas of peace as both an abstract concept the practical methods of conflict resolution"--Provided by publisher

"By triangulating the Greco-Roman world, classical reception and disability studies, this book presents a range of approaches that reassess and reimagine traditional themes in studying disability in the ancient world, from the narrative voice to sensory studies. This book argues that disability and disabled people are the 'forgotten other' of not just Classics, but the Humanities more widely. Beyond the moral merits to rectifying this neglect, this book also provides a series of approaches and case studies that demonstrate the intellectual value of engaging with disability studies as classicists, and exploring the classical legacy in the medical humanities. The book is presented in four parts: 'Communicating and controlling impairment, illness and pain'; 'Using, creating and showcasing disability supports and services'; 'Real bodies and retrieving senses: disability in the ritual record'; and 'Classical reception as the gateway between Classics and disability studies'. Chapters by scholars from different academic backgrounds are carefully paired in these sections, in order to draw out further contrasts and nuances and produce a sum that is more than the parts. The volume also explores how the ancient world and its reception have influenced medical and disability literature, and how engagements with disabled people might lead to reinterpretations of familiar case studies, such as the Parthenon. This book is primarily intended for classicists interested in disabled people in the Greco-Roman past and in how modern disability studies may offer insights into and reinterpretations of historic case studies. It will also be of interest to those working in Medical Humanities, sensory studies, museum studies, and those exploring the wider tension between representation and reality in ancient contexts. As such, it will appeal to people in the wider Humanities who, notwithstanding any interest in how disabled people are represented in literature, art and cinema, have had very little engagement with disability studies and the lived experience of people with impairments"--

"This book takes an in-depth look at the ancient roots of homophobia, including its Pythagorean origins and its eventual spread throughout the Roman Empire and, consequently, the rest of the world"--Provided by publisher

Introducing a largely neglected area of existing interactions between Greco-Roman antiquity and media theory, this book addresses the question of why interactions in this area matter, and how they might be developed further. The volume seeks to promote more media attentiveness among scholars of Greece and Rome. It also aims to create more awareness of the presence of the classics in media theory. It foregrounds the persistency of Greco-Roman paradigms across the different strands of media theory. And it calls for a closer consideration of the conceptual underpinnings of scholarly practices around the transformation of ancient Greece and Rome into 'classical' cultures.

"Rome was a slave society. Beyond the thousands of slaves who worked and lived in the heartland of the Roman Empire, slavery fundamentally shaped Roman society and culture. In this book, Sandra Joshel offers a comprehensive overview of Roman slavery. Using a variety of sources, including literature, law, and material culture, she examines the legal condition of Roman slaves, traces the stages of the sale of slaves, analyzes the relations between slaves and slaveholders, and details the social and family lives of slaves. Richly illustrated with images of slaves, captives, and the material conditions of slaves, this book also considers food, clothing, and housing of slaves, thereby locating slaves in their physical surroundings ,# ︡the cook in the kitchen, the maid in her owner,#s̥ bedroom, the smith in a workshop, and the farm laborer in a vineyard. Based on rigorous scholarship, Slavery in Roman Society serves as a lively, accessible account to introductory-level students of the ancient Mediterranean world"--Provided by publisher