Roman Presences
Receptions of Rome in European Culture, 1789–1945

Scholars from several disciplines explore the significance of Rome from the late eighteenth century to 1945.

Catharine Edwards (Edited by)

9780521036177, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 April 2007

308 pages, 26 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15 x 1.2 cm, 0.462 kg

'It is an impressive collection … The book … offers a wealth of fascinating material …' Classical and Modern Literature

This collection of essays explores aspects of the reception of ancient Rome in a number of European countries from the late eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War. Rome has been made to stand for literary authority, republican heroism, imperial power and decline, the Catholic Church, the pleasure of ruins. The studies offered here examine some of the sometimes strange and unexpected places where Roman presences have manifested themselves during this period. Scholars from several disciplines, including English literature and history of art, as well as classics, bring to bear a variety of approaches on a wide range of images and texts, from statues of Napoleon to Freud's analysis of dreams. Rome's seemingly boundless capacity for multiple, indeed conflicting, signification has made it an extraordinarily fertile paradigm for making sense of - and also for destabilizing - history, politics, identity, memory and desire.

List of illustrations
List of contributors
Preface and acknowledgements
Introduction: shadows and fragments Catharine Edwards
1. A sense of place: Rome, history and empire revisited Duncan F. Kennedy
2. Envisioning Rome: Granet and Gibbon in dialogue Stephen Bann
3. Napoleon I: a new Augustus? Valérie Huet
4. Translating empire? Macaulay's Rome Catharine Edwards
5. Comparativism and references to Rome in British imperial attitudes to India Javed Majeed
6. Decadence and the subversion of empire Norman Vance
7. The road to ruin: memory, ghosts, moonlight and weeds Chloe Chard
8. Henry James and the anxiety of Rome John Lyon
9. 'The monstrous diversion of a show of gladiators': Simeon Solomon's Habet! Elizabeth Prettejohn
10. Christians and pagans in Victorian novels Frank M. Turner
11. Screening ancient Rome in the new Italy Maria Wyke
12. A flexible Rome: Fascism and the cult of romanità Marla Stone
13. The Nazi concept of Rome Volker Losemann
14. Ruins of Rome: T. S. Eliot and the presence of the past Charles Martindale
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]