Horrible deaths, grotesque deaths
Inversion of the heroic model and construction of the
reader-viewer
The aim of this essay is to analyze several instances of the
reversal of the hero’s glorious death, the critical moment of his/her
career. In order to achieve this goal, I have selected some of most
outstanding passages from Lucan’s Civil War, for instance
Sceva’s aristeia (6.138–262), and the episode of the
Asbyte’s death by the flavian epicist Silius Italicus
(Punica 2.189–210).
After having studied the resources employed by the Roman writers,
I compare them with the means of description of the grotesque deaths in the
TV series Spartacus (2010–2013), a product of mass culture
alien to the academic world. Both the similarities and the differences
raised by this comparison are relevant to understanding the meaning of this
kind of representation.
Article outline
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
-
Notes
-
References