1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910816169503321

Autore

Lada-Richards Ismene

Titolo

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

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.