Orientalism and the Reception of Powerful Women from the Ancient World

Description

Why is Cleopatra, a descendent of Alexander the Great, a Ptolemy from a Greek–Macedonian family, in popular imagination an Oriental woman? True, she assumed some aspects of pharaonic imagery in order to rule Egypt, but her Orientalism mostly derives from ancient (Roman) and modern stereotypes: both the Orient and the idea of a woman in power are signs, in the Western tradition, of 'otherness' – and in this sense they can easily overlap and interchange. This volume investigates how ancient women, and particularly powerful women, such as queens and empresses, have been re-imagined in Western (and not only Western) arts; highlights how this re-imagination and re-visualization is, more often than not, the product of Orientalist stereotypes – even when dealing with women who had nothing to do with Eastern regions; and compares these images with examples of Eastern gaze on the same women. Through the chapters in this volume, readers will discover the similarities and differences in the ways in which women in power were and still are described and decried by their opponents. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS FIGURES CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION Women and the Orient: A ‘double estrangement’ Ancient powerful women and the Orientalizing gaze Visualizing the ancient (Oriental) world Women and the Orient: The female gaze Cleopatras Contents of this book CHAPTER 1 SEMIRAMIDE IN INDIA: THE RECEPTION OF AN ANCIENT ORIENTAL WARRIOR QUEEN IN BAROQUE OPERA Semiramis in India – main sources and narratives from Antiquity to early modern times Big opera – Semiramide in India Semiramide dopo India – an opera perspective CHAPTER 2 CARIAN QUEENS FROM THE ORIENT TO GREECE AND BACK: THE RECEPTION OF ARTEMISIA I AND ARTEMISIA II The evidence: Artemisia I and Artemisia II in the ancient sources Artemisia as a role model for European ruling queens and queen mothers Artemisia goes to the movies Postmodern Artemisia CHAPTER 3 THE PERSIAN BOY, THE BACTRIAN GIRL AND THE MAN FROM MACEDON: GENDER AND ORIENTALISMS IN MARY RENAULT’S ALEXANDER THE GREAT TRILOGY Bagoas, Roxane and the ancient sources Mary Renault, the Persian boy and the Bactrian girl CHAPTER 4 DRYPETIS IN FACT AND (FAN)FICTION* Drypetis in the ancient sources Drypetis in fanfiction Conclusion CHAPTER 5 EXOTIC, EROTIC, HEROIC? WOMEN OF CARTHAGE IN WESTERN IMAGINATION Preface The tragic woman The exotic woman The vanished woman The resurrected woman Conclusions CHAPTER 6 IN THE NAME OF CLEOPATRA: EMMA HAMILTON AND CATHERINE STEPNEY MAKE THEIR MARK Cleopatra’s after-life in Europe The Augustan legacy Emma Hamilton: Cleopatra personified Cleopatra impersonated CHAPTER 7 COLON(IAL)IZING FULVIA: (RE)PRESENTINGTHE MILITARY WOMAN IN HISTORY, FICTION AND ART Introduction Gender and Orientalism Horizontal and vertical relationships in the Fulvian tradition Alia oratio in the Fulvian tradition Aesthetic performances in the Fulvian tradition Conclusion CHAPTER 8 THE ORIENTAL EMPRESSES OF ROME: SEVERAN WOMEN IN LITERATURE AND THE PERFORMATIVE ARTS The Nachleben at a glance The early modern age The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries From the First World War to the present Julia Domna, tormented mother Julia Maesa, Machiavellian matriarch Julia Soaemias, imperial harlot Julia Mammaea, ambitious outsider Conclusion CHAPTER 9 THE PALMYRENE QUEEN ZENOBIA IN SYRIAN TV: INVERTING ORIENTALISM FOR MODERN NATIONHOOD? A desert queen through Western eyes Getting to know the TV series Al A’babid : Setting, characters and plot Will the real queen please stand up . . . The warrior queen versus a tyrant The queen is ours and will live forever ‘Mother desert’ in Syria! Conclusions Post Scriptum: Zenobia defeated? CHAPTER 10 THE DARK GAZE OF GALLA PLACIDIA The rebirth of Galla Placidia Re-inventing Ravenna Ezra Pound Carl Jung Conclusion CHAPTER 11 THEODORA A.P. (AFTER PROCOPIUS) /THEODORA A.S. (AFTER SARDOU): METAMORPHOSES OF AN EMPRESS Theodora B.P. (Before Procopius) Minor roles: Theodora A.P. (After Procopius) and B.S. (Before Sardou) Orientalism, Byzantium and German Theodoras Theodora B.S. / A.S. (Before Sardou / After Sardou): the femme fatalein France Theodora during the Roaring 1920s Theodora’s re-evaluation CHAPTER 12 FROM HISTORICAL ENIGMA TO MODERN ROLE MODEL: THE RECEPTION OF SĀSĀNID QUEEN ŠĪRĪN IN CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN CINEMA Introduction The historical queen – an enigma Transformation into legend: Ferdowsi’s Šahnama and Nezamı’s Khamsa Cinematic reception of the Šırın-story in the twenty- first century Kiarostami’s Shirin Interpreting Kiarostami: Between self-Orientalism and nativism Kiarostami: A critique of nativism Conclusion CHAPTER 13 INSTEAD OF A CONCLUSION: GYNAECOCRACY IN THE ORIENT, ORIENTAL SECLUSION IN THE OCCIDENT * Orient and Occident, Asia and Europe The reversal of gender roles in ancient gynaecocracy discourse The Orient in the Occident: the modern topos of Oriental seclusion and the reinvention of gynaecocracy NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX