To browse Academia. Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World is the first substantial account of elite Roman concubines and courtesans. Exploring the blurred line between proper matron and wicked prostitute, it illuminates the lives of sexually promiscuous women like Messalina and Clodia, as well as prostitutes with hearts of gold who saved Rome and their lovers in times of crisis.
It also offers insights into the multiple functions of erotic imagery and the circumstances in which prostitutes could play prominent roles in Roman public and religious life. Tracing the evolution of social stereotypes and concepts of virtue and vice in ancient Rome, this volume reveals the range of life choices and sexual activity, beyond the traditional binary depiction of wives or prostitutes, that were available to Roman women.
According to the conclusions of my doctoral dissertation, which dealt with longth-century French literature , there is a significant decline in the number of novels depicting male prostitution from to By considering little-known novels by J. Cuisin, a now forgotten writer of the early 19th century, I intend to better understand how the representations of male prostitution evolved from the libertine fiction of the late 18th century to the realist novel of the s.
The identity of the female prostitute in Ancient Rome is often defined in simplistic bias-laden terms. The contemporary literature is presented from an elite male understanding, and a Western elite male ideology continues to dominate today. This paper attempts to unpick this bias to form a deeper understanding of the identity of the female prostitute.
The identity is examined using three definitions: legal, sexual preference, and that of a woman. By looking at these various definitions a more layered and complex identity is presented than simply that of a female sex worker.
