Viggen Posted July 5, 2010 Report Share Posted July 5, 2010 Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome by Ray Laurence Book Review by Ursus Ray Laurence is a Strategic Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, and is co-author of Pompeii: The Living City. In his introduction, Laurence states that while attending lectures and working on his PhD thesis, a professor fostered in him an interest in "the history of pleasure." Where cultural studies on pleasure exist, they tend to view the perspective from a utilitarian standpoint - i.e., what was useful to society. Laurence became intrigued by the notion of pleasure as an individual choice; that is to say, Laurence wanted to divorce the study of pleasure from the structural paradigms so loved by professional academics, and instead focus on what people enjoyed doing simply for the sheer hell of it... ...read the full review of Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome by Ray Laurence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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