Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0229 - Lives & Afterlives of Pompeii

Destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, Pompeii preserves traces of every aspect of life from shop signs and graffiti to a temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis to richly decorated houses. This course will focus on analyzing that material culture record to see what it can reveal about the town's social and economic structure, its politics, patterns of worship, its places of entertainment, and its burgeoning sex industry. Of equal importance will be the rediscovery of the site in 1748 and the creative reconstructions and fictions it has generated since from lurid nineteenth century paintings and novels to films and an episode of Dr. Who. The marketing of Pompeii in recent blockbuster museum exhibitions and the politics of the preservation of a site, which is rapidly disintegrating will also be subjects for discussion and research.

Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend three hours a week outside of class time in preparation and work.