Images of Power: Memory, Myth and Monuments in the Roman Republic

TL;DRAbstract

Approaches -theoretical and methodological1In these (post-)modern days, thanks to Michel Foucault, the axiomatic declaration that visual and other representations of power -or rather the specific ways, media and modes of representing it in a given society or culture -are part and parcel of the structure, 'fabric' or 'discourse' of power itself and its concrete character in that culture seems to be nothing but a truism.In an innovative and thought-provoking study, Peter Holliday (henceforth H.) shows that there may be more empirical truth(s) in this rather general, if vague dogma than meet the mere theorist's eye.This is not to say that H.'s interpretations of concrete monuments and 'readings' of visual themes and pictorial topoi (H.'s notion of this term will need some further discussion) are not imbued with theoretical and methodological reflections -on the contrary.H. is impressively well read in modern cultural studies: Clifford Geertz, Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu and the aforem

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper