Pompeii in the Public Imagination from Its Rediscovery to TodayShelley Hales, Joanna Paul The city of Pompeii has had an enormous impact on Western imaginations since its rediscovery under the ashes of the volcano that destroyed it in 79 CE. In the 250 years since excavations began, Pompeii has helped to bring the ancient world to life for everyone, from music hall audiences to gentleman scholars, and it continues to have an impact on the way in which we think about the past, and the human condition itself. The contributors to this generously illustrated volume, who include the novelist Robert Harris, in a recorded interview, investigate how Pompeii has been used in film, fiction, and art on both sides of the Atlantic over three centuries. They explore the many different ways in which Pompeii inhabits our imaginations: as ghostly relic of human suffering, romantic ruin, model of cultural inspiration, home of a distant, decadent culture, and comforting model for everyday life. |
Contents
Ruins and Reconstructions | 1 |
Goethes Repeated Approaches to Pompeii | 15 |
William Beckford as a Visitor to Pompeii | 34 |
Plinys Letters to Tacitus and Angelica Kauffmanns Pliny the Younger and his Mother at Misenum | 48 |
Pompeii and Vesuvius in Corinne or Italy | 62 |
Recreating the City | 75 |
Necromantic Pathos in BulwerLyttons City of the Dead | 90 |
Souvenir de Pompéi | 105 |
15 Experiencing the Last Days of Pompeii in Late NineteenthCentury Philadelphia | 215 |
16 In Search of Lost Time and Pompeii | 232 |
Vittorio Spinazzola and the Via dellAbbondanza | 246 |
Art Architecture and Aristocratic SelfFashioning in the MidTwentieth Century | 270 |
19 Pompeii in Roberto Rossellinis Journey to Italy | 286 |
20 The Censorship Myth and the Secret Museum | 301 |
Looking at Looking in Pompeiis Brothel and the Secret Cabinet | 316 |
An Interview with Robert Harris | 331 |
Chassériaus Pompeii in NineteenthCentury Paris | 118 |
10 Italian ClassicalRevival Painters and the Southern Question | 136 |
11 Cities of the Dead | 153 |
12 Christians and Jews at Pompeii in Late NineteenthCentury Fiction | 171 |
Freudian Archaeology | 185 |
The Last Days of Pompeii in the Early American Republic | 199 |
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ancient antiquity appear archaeological archive artistic audience become body Bulwer-Lytton’s cast century characters Chasse´riau Christian classical collection colour contemporary continued Corinne course culture dead death described desire destruction detail discussion dream early eruption event excavations exhibition experience fact feelings figures frescoes Freud Getty Glaucus Goethe Greek guides Herculaneum House human idea imagination interest Italian Italy journey Last Days later letter living look material Museum Naples narrative novel objects offers once painting Paris particular past perhaps photographs Plautus Pliny Pompeian Pompeii popular present readers reading reception remains Roman Rome ruins scene seems sense sexual shows slave statue story streets suggests tion tourists turn University Vesuvius Villa visitors volume wall writing young