Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
Lädt ... Sex and Terrorvon Pascal Quignard
Keine Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
The fascinus, or phallus, was at the heart of classical Roman art and life. No god was more represented in ancient Rome than the phallic deity Priapus, and the fescennine verses, one of the earliest forms of Roman poetry, accompanied the celebrations of Priapus, the harvest, and fertility. But with this emphasis on virility also came an emphasis on power and ideas of possession and protection. In Sex and Terror, Pascal Quignard looks closely at this delicate interplay of celebration and terror. In startling and original readings of myths, satires, memoirs, and works of ancient philosophy and visual art, Quignard locates moments of both playful, aesthetic commemoration and outward cruelty. Through these examples, he describes a colossal cultural shift within Western civilization that occurred two millennia ago, as Augustus shaped the Roman world into an empire and the joyous, precise eroticism of the Greeks turned into a terror-stricken melancholy. The details of this revolution in thinking are revealed through Quignard’s astute analysis of classical literary sources and Roman art. This powerful transformation from celebration to fear is a change whose consequences, Quignard argues, we are still dealing with today, making Sex and Terror an intriguing reconsideration of ancient Rome that transcends its history. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)751.7309377The arts Painting Materials and MethodsKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
The ritual specific to Rome is the ludibrium, a Priapic rite of ritualized indecency. This sarcastic game, the obscene dancing, joking, the sarcastic display of erect penises, the killing with ridicule, was Rome’s contribution to the ancient world.
To quote from the book: “The Christian history has a ludibrium as its founding moment. The primal scene of Christianity – the servile torture of crucifixion reserved for the man claiming to be God, the flagellatio, the inscription ‘Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum’, the purple robe (veste purpurea), the royal crown made of thorns (coronam spineam), the reed as scepter and the shaming nudity – is a ludibrium designed to elicit laughter. The seventeenth-century Chinese to whom the Jesuit fathers were attempting to teach Christianity understood it as such from the outset and could not comprehend how a comic scene could be made into a an article of faith.”
OMG – This is so right on - it truly is the religion of slaves as Lucian sarcastically pointed out.
The author discusses the slow transformation that occurred under the Romans from the joyful sexual exuberance of the Greeks to the melancholic Romans who laid the groundwork for the final renunciation by the Christians. To quote the author: “The Christians no more invented Christian morality than they invented the Latin language.” This truth has always been apparent to me. The New Testament reflects Roman values…it does not represent Jewish values or anything of the sort...those who have only read Christian literature…especially of the conservative variety don’t get this…can’t get this because they have never read or studied the Ancients themselves. As Joachim Jeremias, Professor of New Testament and Near Eastern Studies, once wrote, there is not one original thought in the New Testament. Well of course…it is only with a profound historical forgetfulness that Moderns don't know this.
IMO, the one thing that is quintessentially Jewish however, is how the death of Jesus is turned into a triumph. This characterizes all of Jewish history down to the present. The fact that the Jewish people survive repeated crushing defeats is turned ( subverted ) into a triumph. And thus it is with Jesus. The bastard son of a low woman from a conquered crushed people is turned into a King( When Pompey conquered Israel in 63BCE, he put 12,000 Jews to death. When he entered the Temple and saw the tablets, he said 'Smash it all'. ) .
The book is not about Christianity, these were merely remarks - which characterizes the book as a whole - it is full of insightful remarks - the book is about how Romans viewed the world as illustrated in their literature and visual arts. The author includes many color plates of ancient art along with his unique interpretation.
A nice complement to this book is From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity( http://www.librarything.com/work/14100723 ).
The book includes many color plates of Roman art and his interesting interpretation.
Tolle lege! I am rereading it again. ( )