Penelope Reed Doob's Books

The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

By: Penelope Reed Doob

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The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

By: Penelope Reed Doob

Ancient and medieval labyrinths embody paradox, according to Penelope Reed Doob. Their structure allows a double perspective—the baffling, fragmented prospect confronting the maze-treader within, and the comprehensive vision available to those without. Mazes simultaneously assert order and chaos, artistry and confusion, articulated clarity and bewildering complexity, perfected pattern and hesitant process. In this handsomely illustrated book, Doob reconstructs from a variety of literary and visual sources the idea of the labyrinth from the classical period through the Middle Ages. Doob first examines several complementary traditions of the maze topos, showing how ancient historical and geographical writings generate metaphors in which the labyrinth signifies admirable complexity, while poetic texts tend to suggest that the labyrinth is a sign of moral duplicity. She then describes two common models of the labyrinth and explores their formal implications: the unicursal model, with no false turnings, found almost universally in the visual arts; and the multicursal model, with blind alleys and dead ends, characteristic of literary texts. This paradigmatic clash between the labyrinths of art and of literature becomes a key to the metaphorical potential of the maze, as Doob's examination of a vast array of materials from the classical period through the Middle Ages suggests. She concludes with linked readings of four "labyrinths of words": Virgil's Aeneid, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Chaucer's House of Fame, each of which plays with and transforms received ideas of the labyrinth as well as reflecting and responding to aspects of the texts that influenced it. Doob not only provides fresh theoretical and historical perspectives on the labyrinth tradition, but also portrays a complex medieval aesthetic that helps us to approach structurally elaborate early works. Readers in such fields as Classical literature, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, comparative literature, literary theory, art history, and intellectual history will welcome this wide-ranging and illuminating book.

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Page Count

360

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

150173847X

ISBN 13

9781501738470

Death and the Emperor

Roman Imperial Funerary Monuments from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius

By: Penelope J. E. Davies

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Death and the Emperor

Roman Imperial Funerary Monuments from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius

By: Penelope J. E. Davies

Davies sets out to ask, How did the Romans bury Caesar? And with what monuments did they sing his praises? . . . The architectural elaboration of these structures, their siting in the capital, the lines of vision and approaches that exposed them to view, the paths their complex outworks formed for visitors to walk, are all picked out with skill and presented with care in Death and the Emperor." ?Times Literary Supplement "This concise and lucidly written book is a very valuable new contribution to the studies of Roman imperial cult, political propaganda, and topography, and has the added benefit of discussing complex scholarly disputes in a manner that the non-specialist will probably follow with ease. . . . There is material in this volume that will be immensely useful to researchers in many areas: archaeology, history of architecture, iconography, history of religion, and Roman political propaganda, to name just a few. I strongly recommend it to scholars interested in any or all of the above topics." ?Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Even though its focus is on only seven specimens of architecture, the book touches upon a broad array of aspects of Roman imperial culture. Elegantly written and generously illustrated . . . this book should be of great interest to the general public as well as to the scholarly community." ?American Journal of Archaeology

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Page Count

292

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0292702752

ISBN 13

9780292702752

The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

By: Penelope Reed Doob

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The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

By: Penelope Reed Doob

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Page Count

376

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1501738461

ISBN 13

9781501738463

Book's by Penelope Reed Doob

The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

Death and the Emperor

Death and the Emperor

The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages

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