_Figuring Death in Classical Athens_ puts art and literature in
conversation to explore how ancient Athenians grappled with the
uncertainties of death. How did objects and texts generate thinking
about what death is and might be like? Were Athenians aware of the
imaginative frameworks that underpinned their thinking? Did they worry
not just about death, but whether they could figure it out?
Death in the ancient world has long been a subject of interest.
Studies abound that examine its social and ideological dimensions,
funerary practices, and changing attitudes and beliefs. This book
takes a fresh approach, cutting across sub-disciplines (art, text,
philosophy, and so on) to build a picture of how ancient art and
literature got their audiences thinking-thinking not just about death
but about its knowability. Whether in the theatre, at the symposium,
or on the Acropolis, representations of death challenged Athenians by
presenting problems of exteriority (how can the living know what dying
might be like?) and particularity (can one person's experience hold
for another? is death truly a 'leveller'?).
The material covered is wide ranging. Unlike other studies, which
often focus on either art or text and on one category of objects or
one literary genre, the book pulls together exemplary texts and
objects (including Plato, drinking cups, Sophocles, temple sculpture,
and Thucydides) and makes each accessible to readers from multiple
sub-disciplines and, indeed, from beyond Classics.
It will be critical reading for those interested in ancient attitudes
to death, as well as those interested in cultural imagination and
intellectual history. As a multi-media study, it will appeal to those
working on ancient image and text (and their intersection), and, more
broadly, to those in other disciplines working on visuality,
mediality, materiality, and culturally situated ideas.
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Visual and Literary Explorations
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780198947929
Publisert
2025
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
OUP Oxford
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter