The Invention of Jane Harrison / / Mary Beard.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Beard, Mary,
• MitwirkendeR: Bowersock, G. W.,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2002]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: Revealing Antiquity ,
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) is the most famous female Classicist in history, the author of books that revolutionized our understanding of Greek culture and religion. A star in the British academic world, she became the quintessential Cambridge woman--as Virginia Woolf suggested when, in A Room of One's Own, she claims to have glimpsed Harrison's ghost in the college gardens. This lively and innovative portrayal of a fascinating woman raises the question of who wins (and how) in the competition for academic fame. Mary Beard captures Harrison's ability to create her own image. And she contrasts her story with that of Eugénie Sellers Strong, a younger contemporary and onetime intimate, the author of major work on Roman art and once a glittering figure at the British School in Rome--but who lost the race for renown. The setting for the story of Harrison's career is Classical scholarship in this period--its internal arguments and allegiances and especially the influence of the anthropological strain most strikingly exemplified by Sir James Frazer. Questioning the common criteria for identifying intellectual "influence" and "movements," Beard exposes the mythology that is embedded in the history of Classics. At the same time she provides a vivid picture of a sparkling intellectual scene. The Invention of Jane Harrison offers shrewd history and undiluted fun.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Illustrations -- Chapter one. Prolegomena -- Chapter two. Mrs. Arthur Strong: Apotheosis and After Life -- Chapter three. Unanimism -- Chapter four. Myths of the Odyssey in Art and Literature -- Chapter five. Introductory Studies in Greek Art -- Chapter six. Alpha and Omega -- Chapter seven. Ancient Art and Ritual -- Chapter eight. Hellas at Cambridge -- Chapter nine. Pandora’s Box -- Chapter ten. Epilegomena -- Lifelines -- Notes -- Major Archival Sources -- Bibliography -- Index -- Revealing antiquity