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Inside the Blue Book
R-Rated
Rome
February
2003
by
Jennifer L. Holley
CLCV
222a: Roman Scandals: Representations and Receptions of Rome
Faculty:
Susanna Morton Braund, Professor of Classics
As if
its title weren't enticing enough, "Roman Scandals" also comes with
a warning label: "This
course involves study of explicit sexual material, visual and textual.
If you are likely to be offended by this, you are advised not to
select this course."
The brave students
who sign up compare modern and ancient representations of Roman
morality and immorality. Professor Susanna Morton Braund got the
idea for the course from a 1933 Eddie Cantor movie, Roman Scandals. Cantor's character gets transported from West Rome, Oklahoma,
to ancient Rome, only to find the two cities more alike than different.
"This movie clearly assimilates modern life with Roman antiquity,"
says Braund, "while other sources tend to dissimilate the
two."
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Morals
are explored in relation to ruins, decadence, orgies, feasts,
and sex.
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Braund draws upon 18th-century
literature, 19th-century art, and 20th-century film, comparing their
views of Rome to ancient texts. Morals are explored in relation
to ruins, decadence, orgies, feasts, and sex. The last topic is
studied in regard to the Victorian penchant for painting Roman scenes
with naked bodies (such as in Jean Leon Gerome's A Roman Slave
Market, in which a beautiful slave is subjected to the gaze
of rich Romans). Rome gave the Victorians a form of escapism, in
that it allowed people to publicly view and admire nudes. On the
flip side, artists could condemn contemporary forms of decadence
from the less didactic vantage point of a different time and place.
For their term papers,
students choose a topic not discussed in the course. "In representations
of Rome, some bits are true. Other bits are there because of a moral
agenda," says Braund. "I want students to come away from the course
having learned how to treat sources cautiously."  |
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