Ancient Rome and the construction of modern homosexual identities / edited by Jennifer Ingleheart.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ingleheart, Jennifer, editor.

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Series:

Classical presences

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Male homosexuality--Rome.

Male homosexuality.

Male homosexuality in art.

Male homosexuality in literature.

Rome--Social life and customs.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

xvii, 358 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

"Much has been written about the contribution of ancient Greece to modern discourses of homosexuality, but Rome's significant role has been largely overlooked. Ancient Rome and the Construction of Modern Homosexual Identities explores the contested history of responses to Roman antiquity, covering areas such as literature, the visual arts, popular culture, scholarship, and pornography. Essays by scholars working across a number of disciplines analyse the demonization of Rome and attempts to write it out of the history of homosexuality by early activists such as John Addington Symonds, who believed that Rome had corrupted ideal (and idealized) 'Greek love' through its decadence and sexual licentiousness. The volume's contributors also investigate the identification with Rome by men and women who have sought an alternative ancestry for their desires. The volume asks what it means to look to Rome instead of Greece, theorizes the way in which Rome itself appropriates Greece, and explores the consequences of such appropriations and identifications, both ancient and modern.From learned discussions of lesbian cunnilingus in Renaissance commentaries on Martial and Juvenal, to disgust at the sexual excesses of the emperors, to the use of Rome by the early sexologists, to modern pornographic films that linger on the bodies of gladiators and slaves, Rome has been central to homosexual desires and experiences. By interrogating the desires that create engagements with the classical past, the volume illuminates both classical reception and the history of sexuality" -- Jacket cover.

Contents:

Part I Homosexual Encounters In Writings from the Renaissance to the Modern Period

1 Lesbian Philology in Early Print Commentaries on Juvenal and Martial / Marc D. Schachter Schachter, Marc D. 39

2 The Invention of (Thracian) Homosexuality. The Ovidian Orpheus in the English Renaissance / Jennifer Ingleheart Ingleheart, Jennifer 56

3 Winckelmann's Legacy: Decorum, Textuality, and National Stereotype in the Eighteenth-Century Reception of Homosexuality / Matthew Fox Fox, Matthew 74

4 Of That I Know Many Examples...: On the Relationship of Greek Theory and Roman Practices in Karl Heinrich Ulrichs's Writings on the Third Sex / Sebastian Matzner Matzner, Sebastian 93

5 The Reception of Rome in English Sexology / Jana Funke Funke, Jana, Rebecca Langlands Langlands, Rebecca 109

6 Roman Receptions/Receptions of Rome: Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean / Daniel Orrells Orrells, Daniel 126

7 Putting the Roman Back into Romance: The Subversive Case of the Anonymous Teleny / Jennifer Ingleheart Ingleheart, Jennifer 144

8 Sex and the City: Petronius' Satyrica and Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar / Nikolai Endres Endres, Nikolai 161

9 Roman Homosexuality in Historical Fiction, from Robert Graves to Steven Saylor / Craig Williams Williams, Craig 176

Part II Romosexuality in the Visual Arts

10 'Gay' Pompeii: Pompeian Art and Homosexuality in the Early Twentieth Century / Sarah Levin-Richardson Levin-Richardson, Sarah 197

11 The Role of Roman Artefacts in E. P. Warren's 'Paederastic Evangel' / Jen Grove Grove, Jen 214

12 Rom(e)-antic Visions: Collecting, Display, and Homosexual Self-Fashioning / Caroline Vout Vout, Caroline 232

13 The Erotic Eye: Cinema, Classicism, and the Sexual Subject / Alastair J. L. Blanshard Blanshard, Alastair J. L. 252

Part III Two Romosexual Authors and Their Influence

14 The Kisses of Juventius, and Policing the Boundaries of Masculinity: The Case of Catullus / Ralph J. Hexter Hexter, Ralph J. 273

15 Too Gross for Our Present Notions of Propriety: Roman Homosexuality in Two Nineteenth-Century Translations of Martial's Epigrams / Craig Williams Williams, Craig 288.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780199689729

0199689725

OCLC:

931998497

Publisher Number:

9780199689729