Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Location
Portland State University
Start Date
5-4-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
5-4-2016 3:00 PM
Subjects
Rome -- History, Rome -- Social life and customs
Abstract
This paper argues for a profound link between gendered stereotypes and geography in the Graeco-Roman imagination focusing on the early Roman Empire. Hitherto, this link has been mentioned, sometimes assumed, and almost never treated as a venture worthy or deeper study or unifying themes, apart from questions of “proto-racism.” Notwithstanding, the links can be drawn comparing how the peoples living in different parts of the empire are described and how stereotypes of gender also appear in historical and literary texts. By careful examination (including cross-examination) of Strabo, Tacitus, Livy, Julius Caesar, and others, I seek the argue for a strong East/West, North/South divide in Roman minds and for a paradoxical self-view by the Italic Romans and that these cardinal directions were often imbued with gendered conceptions of manliness and effeminacy, softness and ruggedness, as well as tameness, and warlike tendencies.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/19828
Included in
Geography of Gender and the Gender of Geography in the Roman Imagination
Portland State University
This paper argues for a profound link between gendered stereotypes and geography in the Graeco-Roman imagination focusing on the early Roman Empire. Hitherto, this link has been mentioned, sometimes assumed, and almost never treated as a venture worthy or deeper study or unifying themes, apart from questions of “proto-racism.” Notwithstanding, the links can be drawn comparing how the peoples living in different parts of the empire are described and how stereotypes of gender also appear in historical and literary texts. By careful examination (including cross-examination) of Strabo, Tacitus, Livy, Julius Caesar, and others, I seek the argue for a strong East/West, North/South divide in Roman minds and for a paradoxical self-view by the Italic Romans and that these cardinal directions were often imbued with gendered conceptions of manliness and effeminacy, softness and ruggedness, as well as tameness, and warlike tendencies.
Comments/Description
Faculty advisor: Brian Turner