The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman EmpirePeople in the ancient world thought of vision as both an ethical tool and a tactile sense, akin to touch. Gazing upon someone—or oneself—was treated as a path to philosophical self-knowledge, but the question of tactility introduced an erotic element as well. In The Mirror of the Self, Shadi Bartsch asserts that these links among vision, sexuality, and self-knowledge are key to the classical understanding of the self. Weaving together literary theory, philosophy, and social history, Bartsch traces this complex notion of self from Plato’s Greece to Seneca’s Rome. She starts by showing how ancient authors envisioned the mirror as both a tool for ethical self-improvement and, paradoxically, a sign of erotic self-indulgence. Her reading of the Phaedrus, for example, demonstrates that the mirroring gaze in Plato, because of its sexual possibilities, could not be adopted by Roman philosophers and their students. Bartsch goes on to examine the Roman treatment of the ethical and sexual gaze, and she traces how self-knowledge, the philosopher’s body, and the performance of virtue all played a role in shaping the Roman understanding of the nature of selfhood. Culminating in a profoundly original reading of Medea, The Mirror of the Self illustrates how Seneca, in his Stoic quest for self-knowledge, embodies the Roman view, marking a new point in human thought about self-perception. Bartsch leads readers on a journey that unveils divided selves, moral hypocrisy, and lustful Stoics—and offers fresh insights about seminal works. At once sexy and philosophical, The Mirror of the Self will be required reading for classicists, philosophers, and anthropologists alike. |
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The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early ... Shadi Bartsch No preview available - 2014 |
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Achilles Tatius actor Alcibiades ancient antiquity Apuleius argue audience beauty behavior beloved body chapter Christopher Gill Cicero claim context culture Democritus dialogue Diels-Kranz discussion divine elite Epictetus Epicurus eromenos eros erotic ethical evil eye example exemplary exemplum extramission figure first-order desires Foucault Frankfurt Frontisi-Ducroux and Vernant gaze Gill gnothi sauton Greek Hostius idea ideal imagines imago imperial internal intromission judgment look lover Lucilius Lucretius Medea meditatio metaphor mind mirror moral Narcissus nature Nero notion Nussbaum object one’s oneself Ovid passage pederasty penetration persona Phaedrus phallus philosophical Platonic play pleasure Pliny Plutarch political proficiens Q Nat reflection reflexivity role Roman Rome second-order seems seen self-knowledge selfhood senatorial Seneca sense sexual shame sight simulacra Socrates soul sources spectator specular Stoic Stoicism stress suggests terminology texts theater theory tion tradition viewer virtue vision visual voluptas