The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman Empire

by Shadi Bartsch

Book Overview

People in the ancient world thought of vision as both an ethical tool and a tactile sense, akin to touch. Gazing upon someone--or oneself--was treated as a path to philosophical self-knowledge, but the question of tactility introduced an erotic element as well. In The Mirror of the Self , Shadi Bartsch asserts that these links among vision, sexuality, and self-knowledge are key to the classical understanding of the self. Weaving together literary...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226038351
• ISBN13: 9780226038353
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.7" x 9.2"