Silent eloquence : Lucian and Pantomime dancing / / Ismene Lada-Ricnards

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910816169503321
• Autore: Lada-Richards Ismene
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London : , : Bloomsbury Academic, , 2012; ©2007
• ISBN: 1-4725-3769-6
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (240 pages)
• Collana: Classical literature and society
• Disciplina: 792.30938
• Soggetti: Dance - History - Early works to 1800; Pantomime - Greece - History; Pantomime - Rome - History
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: First published in 2007 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction: Setting the Scene -- 1. Pantomime Dancing Through the Centuries -- 2. Pantomime and Other Entertainments: Cross-Fertilisations and Affiliations -- 3. 'Technologies' of the Body: The Pantomime's Art -- 4. Pantomimes and their Body 'Politic' -- 5. Pantomimes and their Body Dangerous -- 6. Emancipating Pantomime: Lycinus' Speech in Lucian's On the Dance -- 7. Lucian's On the Dance or The Sophist's Pantomime -- 8. Pantomime, the Intellectual's Equal? The Genre Through the Eyes of the Cultural Élites --; 9. A 'Margin of Mess': Pantomime and the Strategies of Élite Cultural Self-definition -- 10. Dancing on the Brink: The 'Hybrid' Discourse of Pantomime Dancing -- 11. Who is Afraid of Pantomime Dancers? -- 12. Controlling Theatre in the Imperial East: the Sophist and the Pantomime -- Epilogue; Postscript: The Afterlife of Ancient Pantomime and Lucian's On the Dance.
• Sommario/riassunto: One of the greatest aesthetic attractions in the ancient world was pantomime dancing, a ballet-style entertainment in which a silent, solo dancer incarnated a series of mythological characters to the accompaniment of music and sung narrative. Looking at a multitude of texts and particularly Lucian's "On the Dance", a dialogue written at the height of pantomime's popularity, this innovative cultural study of the ; genre offers a radical reassessment of its importance in the symbolic economy of imperial and later antiquity. Rather than being trivial or lowbrow, pantomime was thoroughly enmeshed in wider social discourses on morality and sexuality, gender and desire and a key player in the fierce battles about education and culture that raged in the ancient world. A close reading of primary sources, judiciously interlaced with a wealth of interdisciplinary perspectives, makes this challenging book essential for anyone interested in the performance culture of the Greek and Roman world.