Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, better known as Augustus, was the first Roman emperor and is one of the most iconic figures in world history. Two thousand years after his death, Augustus remains a strong presence in modern culture.
This book examines the ways in which the idea of Augustus has been continuously reinvented and how he has become a symbol for most varying values and ideas. With the classical past still considered the basis of Western culture, and with Augustus being among the most important characters of Roman history, Elina Pyy argues that the appropriations of his memory can be used as an accurate barometer with which to measure the 'spirit' of a certain era. Through investigation of literary and screen representations of Augustus, including in Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr Rosewater, Christoph Ransmayr's The Last World, the BBC's I Claudius and HBO's Rome, this book examines how he can be used to better understand the ways in which the discourses of power, liberty, oppression and humanity operated in the postmodern world.
Combining the methods of literary semiotics with the tradition of classical reception studies to better understand the intersections between the classical past and the present, The Semiotics of Caesar Augustus seeks to answer the question of what Augustus meant in the postmodern world of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.