CLASS 2605 - [Theater, Sport, and Spectacle: Performance and Competition in Greece and Rome]

(crosslisted) PMA 2605
(HB) (CA-AS)

Fall. Next Offered: 2020-2021. 3 credits. Student option grading.

J. Rusten.

A study of the richly documented tradition of competitive artistic, athletic, and spectacular performances sponsored by cities, wealthy individuals, and kings/emperors in antiquity, with special attention to the ongoing connections and cross-influences between music/theater, athletics, and human/animal combats. We will take our comparative material from the fifth century bce to the late Roman empire. Topics include organizational frameworks, funding sources, associations of performers and their ideologies and rivalries, regulation and hierarchies of audiences, public claques, the adaptation of performance to political events, influence on art, and institutional and intellectual opposition. Evidence will include ancient treatises, inscriptions, mosaics, wall-paintings, and terracottas; all source readings available in English.