Routledge
332 pages | 3 Color Illus. | 95 B/W Illus.
Hellenomania, the second volume in the MANIA series, presents a wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary exploration of the modern reception of ancient Greek material culture in cultural practices ranging from literature to architecture, stage and costume design, painting, sculpture, cinema, and the performing arts. It examines both canonical and less familiar responses to both real and imagined Greek antiquities from the seventeenth century to the present, across various national contexts. Encompassing examples from Inigo Jones to the contemporary art exhibition documenta 14, and from Thessaloniki and Delphi to Nashville, the contributions examine attempted reconstructions of an ‘authentic’ ancient Greece alongside imaginative and utopian efforts to revive the Greek spirit using modern technologies, new media, and experimental practices of the body. Also explored are the political resonances of Hellenomaniac fascinations, and tensions within them between the ideal and the real, the past, present, and future.
Part I examines the sources and derivations of Hellenomania from the Baroque and pre-Romantic periods to the early twentieth century. While covering more canonical material than the following sections, it also casts spotlights on less familiar figures and sets the scene for the illustrations of successive waves of Hellenomania explored in subsequent chapters. Part II focuses on responses, uses, and appropriations of ancient Greek material culture in the built environment—mostly architecture—but also extends to painting and even gymnastics; it examines in particular how a certain idealisation of ancient Greek architecture affected its modern applications. Part III explores challenges to the idealisation of ancient Greece, through the transformative power of colour, movement, and of reliving the past in the present human body, especially female. Part IV looks at how the fascination with the material culture of ancient Greece can move beyond the obsession with Greece and Greekness.
Introduction. Hellenomania: ancient and modern obsessions with the Greek past
Katherine Harloe and Nicoletta Momigliano
Part 1: Hellenomanias from early modern to modernism
Fiona Macintosh
Katherine Harloe
Richard Jenkyns
Part 2: Ideal and real structures of Hellenomania
Frank Salmon
Athena Leoussi
Lena Lambrinou
David Watkin
Part 3: Hellenomania comes to life - Colour, Movement, and the Body
Charlotte Ribeyrol
Pantelis Michelakis
Artemis Leontis
Eleni Sikelianou
Martin M. Winkler
Part 4: Beyond Hellenomania?
Esther Solomon and Styliana Galiniki
Eleana Yalouri
The study of modern Greek and Byzantine history, language and culture has formed an integral part of the work of the British School at Athens since its foundation. This series continues that pioneering tradition. It aims to explore a wide range of topics within a rich field of enquiry which continues to attract readers, writers, and researchers, whether their interest is primarily in contemporary Europe or in one or other of the many dimensions of the long Greek post-classical past.
For further information about the series please contact Michael Greenwood at Michael.Greenwood@informa.com