Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Inventing Ancient Culture discusses aspects of antiquity which we have tended to ignore. It asks the reader how far we have reinvented antiquity, by applying modern concepts and understandings to its study. Furthermore, it challenges the common notion that perceptions of the self, of modern societal and institutional structures, originated in the Enlightenment. Rather, the authors and contributors argue, there are many continuities and marked similarities between the classical and the modern world. Mark Golden and Peter Toohey have assembled a lively cast of contributors who analyse and argue about classical culture, its understandings of philosophy, friendship, the human body, sexuality and historiography
Synopsis
"Inventing Ancient Culture" is an exciting introduction to new approaches to the classics. There is a tendency for those interested in the broader field of cultural studies to claim that modern perceptions of self, modern affectivities, and modern societal and institutional structures date from the Enlightenment. This volume will vigorously challenge this misperception.
Contributors to the volume address issues including the extent of which cultural and social forms change through time, and the extent, or otherwise, of change in cultural systems since antiquity.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-233) and index.