The history written on the classical Greek body
By: Robin Osborne
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9781107003200; 9780521176705
Subjects: Historiography; Social aspects; Social classes; Sources; Psychological aspects; Social conditions; Human body; History
Description: "This book challenges historians of all periods to come to terms with the distortions that they systematically introduce into their work by their reliance on what has been written on paper without looking at what was and was not written on the body. Historians use textual evidence to try to understand what people did in the past. But in interpreting that textual evidence they make assumptions about what past peoples could see. In particular they make assumptions about the way in which the classifications of language were visible to the eye, as well as conceivable in the mind. This book is concerned with the ways in which texts relating to classical Greece, and in particular to classical Athens, classified people and with the extent to which those classifications could be seen by the eye. It compares the qualities distinguished in texts with those distinguished in sculpture and painted pottery and emphasizes the frequent invisibility of the categories upon which historians have laid most stress - the citizen, the free person, the foreigner, even the god. The frequent impossibility of seeing who belonged to which category has major political, social, and theological implications, which are variously explored here. It also has implications for how history is written which go far beyond the case of classical Greece. Nothing short of a revolution in what historians are prepared to treat as source material will be required to take account of the findings of this book"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-248) and index.
Table of contents: title: Writing history on the classical body; title: The appearance of the classical Greek body; title: The distinguished body; title: The citizen body; title: Foreign bodies; title: Dirty bodies; title: Godsbodies; title: Telling bodies.