Encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical Athens
This thesis builds a picture of culturally-mediated encounters with death in classical Athens. Starting from the premise that death is a mystery, that no one knows what death is and what it is like, I ask two core questions. First, how does visual and verbal culture drawn from the classical period (...
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| Materialtyp: | Lärdomsprov |
| Språk: | English |
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2022
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| _version_ | 1826316408902909952 |
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| author | Clifford, E |
| author2 | Elsner, J |
| author_facet | Elsner, J Clifford, E |
| author_sort | Clifford, E |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This thesis builds a picture of culturally-mediated encounters with death in classical Athens. Starting from the premise that death is a mystery, that no one knows what death is and what it is like, I ask two core questions. First, how does visual and verbal culture drawn from the classical period (broadly conceived, to encompass late archaic/early classical and early fourth-century material) generate encounters with death? Second, how does it prompt reflections on the imaginative processes involved in responding to death from the perspective of the living? My approach is by way of case studies, and each chapter covers a distinct medium: literary philosophy, painted pots, tragic drama, temple sculpture, and historiography.
My claim is that existential reflection in classical Athens was not confined to a group of elite thinkers and to the texts that they produced, texts that were self- consciously philosophical or that made death the explicit focus of enquiry. Reflections on death were also generated by diffuse and idiosyncratic interactions between individuals and visual or verbal media in a variety of contexts across Athens, and by dialogues between those encounters. Texts and material culture generated and shaped encounters with death, and also generated and shaped epistemological reflections on the imaginative nature of those encounters—upon the immediate and wider cultural frameworks within which such imaginative processes took place. In my conclusion, I expand this claim by considering the wider implications of my thesis when set against a background of intense intellectual and cultural activity in classical Athens. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:21:05Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:3e942f13-961e-4f3b-87e1-7908dc6d0057 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:44:37Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:3e942f13-961e-4f3b-87e1-7908dc6d00572024-12-07T16:08:00ZEncountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical AthensThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:3e942f13-961e-4f3b-87e1-7908dc6d0057History, AncientLiteratureArtDeath in artEnglishHyrax Deposit2022Clifford, EElsner, JHutchinson, GOsborne, RBudelmann, FThis thesis builds a picture of culturally-mediated encounters with death in classical Athens. Starting from the premise that death is a mystery, that no one knows what death is and what it is like, I ask two core questions. First, how does visual and verbal culture drawn from the classical period (broadly conceived, to encompass late archaic/early classical and early fourth-century material) generate encounters with death? Second, how does it prompt reflections on the imaginative processes involved in responding to death from the perspective of the living? My approach is by way of case studies, and each chapter covers a distinct medium: literary philosophy, painted pots, tragic drama, temple sculpture, and historiography. My claim is that existential reflection in classical Athens was not confined to a group of elite thinkers and to the texts that they produced, texts that were self- consciously philosophical or that made death the explicit focus of enquiry. Reflections on death were also generated by diffuse and idiosyncratic interactions between individuals and visual or verbal media in a variety of contexts across Athens, and by dialogues between those encounters. Texts and material culture generated and shaped encounters with death, and also generated and shaped epistemological reflections on the imaginative nature of those encounters—upon the immediate and wider cultural frameworks within which such imaginative processes took place. In my conclusion, I expand this claim by considering the wider implications of my thesis when set against a background of intense intellectual and cultural activity in classical Athens. |
| spellingShingle | History, Ancient Literature Art Death in art Clifford, E Encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical Athens |
| title | Encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical Athens |
| title_full | Encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical Athens |
| title_fullStr | Encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical Athens |
| title_full_unstemmed | Encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical Athens |
| title_short | Encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical Athens |
| title_sort | encountering death in the visual and verbal culture of classical athens |
| topic | History, Ancient Literature Art Death in art |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT clifforde encounteringdeathinthevisualandverbalcultureofclassicalathens |