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VERBAL AND VISUAL LITERACIES OF ANCIENT ROME
Carolyn MacDonald, "Unearthing a Roman visual discourse: some thoughts on where to dig"
Friday June 01, 2012 | 03:15 -05:00 PM | Building 110

The past two decades have witnessed a surge of scholarly interest in ancient visual culture, bringing new attention to the role of images in public and private life, to ancient theories and practices of viewing, and to the complex relationship between images and texts. In the exploration of Roman visual culture, however, scholars have often found their guides in the Greek literature of the Roman imperial period--an approach that has been justified by a much-lamented lack of Latin sources and a so-called “seamless continuity” between Greek, Roman, and Graceo-Roman aesthetic discourses. The goal of my project is to call into question this homogenous conception of ancient Mediterranean visuality, and to suggest that it might be possible to bring to light a more nuanced and culturally specific Roman discourse on the delights and dangers of vision.