Making Men : Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome / Maud W. Gleason.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gleason, Maud W., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rhetoric, Ancient.

Self in literature.

Civilization, Greco-Roman.

Sophists (Greek philosophy).

Greek literature--Appreciation--Rome.

Greek literature.

Greek literature--Rome--History and criticism.

Greek literature, Hellenistic--Appreciation--Rome.

Greek literature, Hellenistic.

Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek--History and criticism.

Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek.

Greek literature, Hellenistic--History and criticism.

Rome--Civilization--Greek influences.

Rome.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxxii, 193 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

The careers of two popular second-century rhetorical virtuosos offer Maud Gleason fascinating insights into the ways ancient Romans constructed masculinity during a time marked by anxiety over manly deportment. Declamation was an exhilarating art form for the Greeks and bilingual Romans of the Second Sophistic movement, and its best practitioners would travel the empire performing in front of enraptured audiences. The mastery of rhetoric marked the transition to manhood for all aristocratic citizens and remained crucial to a man's social standing. In treating rhetoric as a process of self-presentation in a face-to-face society, Gleason analyzes the deportment and writings of the two Sophists--Favorinus, a eunuch, and Polemo, a man who met conventional gender expectations--to suggest the ways character and gender were perceived. Physiognomical texts of the era show how intently men scrutinized one another for minute signs of gender deviance in such features as gait, gesture, facial expression, and voice. Rhetoricians trained to develop these traits in a "masculine" fashion. Examining the successful career of Favorinus, whose high-pitched voice and florid presentation contrasted sharply with the traditionalist style of Polemo, Gleason shows, however, that ideal masculine behavior was not a monolithic abstraction. In a highly accessible study treating the semiotics of deportment and the medical, cultural, and moral issues surrounding rhetorical activity, she explores the possibilities of self-presentation in the search for recognition as a speaker and a man.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER ONE. Favorinus and His Statue

CHAPTER TWO. Portrait of Polemo: The Deportment of the Public Self

CHAPTER THREE. Deportment as Language: Physiognomy and the Semiotics of Gender

CHAPTER FOUR. Aerating the Flesh: Voice Training and the Calisthenics of Gender

CHAPTER FIVE. Voice and Virility in Rhetorical Writers

CHAPTER SIX. Manhood Achieved through Speech: A Eunuch-Philosopher's Self-Fashioning

CONCLUSION

A NOTE ON FINDING SOURCES IN TRANSLATION

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX LOCORUM

GENERAL INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-174) and indexes.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691187570

0691187576

OCLC:

1132223023