Petronius' Satyricon
"Dinner with Trimalchio" |
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Roman bedrooms were frequently adorned with mythological wall paintings, for example this one showing the Cyclops, Polyphemus, as the unsuccessful suitor of the sea nymph Galatea. At the upper right is an episode from the return of Odysseus in which Polyphemus, blinded by Odysseus and his crew, hurls a boulder at the departing ships. Compare the description of the wall paintings in Trimalchio's house. |
Did you pick up the following points from our discussion?
"Distinction" |
"The denial of lower, coarse, vulgar, venal, servile--in a word, natural--enjoyment, which constitutes the sacred sphere of culture, implies an affirmation of the superiority of those who can be satisfied with the sublimated, refined, disinterested, gratuitous, distinguished pleasures forever closed to the profane. That is why art and cultural consumption are predisposed, consciously and deliberately or not, to fulfil a social function of legitimating social differences." "Parvenus who presume to join the group of legitimate, i.e., hereditary, possessors of the legitimate manner, wihout being the product of the same social conditions, are trapped, whatever they do, in a choice between anxious hyper-identification and the negativity which admits its defeat in its very revolt." P. Bourdieu, Distinction. |
Culture |
Think about: Culture (with a capital C) and popular culture: who or what makes and guards the boundaries between them? how and why are they maintained? or are they? |
Petronius |
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The Satyricon |
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"Dinner with Trimalchio" |
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Food for thought |
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