The Colour of Classics: The Weaponisation of the Classical World in the Formation of White, British Identity

经典的色彩：古典世界在英国白人身份形成过程中的武器化

• 批准号: 2395044
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2395044
• 关键词: Colour; Classics; Weaponisation; Classical; World

This project exposes how Classics and classical historiography played a role in the formation of white identity during Britain's empire, and the contemporary colonial consequences of that. It will do this primarily through an artistic lens by examining both the whitewashing of the classical past as well as classically-influenced paintings in contemporary settings. My arguments will also discuss other socio-political issues in relation to Classics, such as the idea of 'Western Civilisation' and how Classics today can confront its problems with white supremacy and decolonisation.It is an open secret that the classical world was not a white one, yet the image that is conjured up in public imagination is one filled with the white protagonists of European mythological paintings. Since its formal inception in the eighteenth century, Classics was used as a weapon of empire and was wielded to promote Britain as the paradigm of the 'the West'. There is no shortage of evidence that demonstrates Britain's obsession with the classical past, from a parliamentary debate from 1816 that insisted the Parthenon marbles spoke of Britain's 'national character' to wider comparisons between Greater Rome and Greater Britain. But there were colonial consequences of this. The existence of a 'British' identity relied on comparison, and in this case Britain was identifying itself against its colonies. Britain became what its colonies were not: white, Christian, and 'Western'. Classics evolved along the same imperial ideologies, the consequences of which are still apparent today. From the negative reception of BBC's Troy, where a black actor played Achilles, to Mary Beard's declaration that Classics is 'apolitical', it is clear that Classics still has a problem with race. Several scholars have explored this issue. Barbara Goff provided me with my first insight into the issue, alongside Phiroze Vasunia and Rebecca Kennedy. However, this topic is relatively fertile and scholarship is emerging from new sources, from pieces in Eidolon on contemporary issues in Classics to Sarah Bond's piece on whitewashing in the New Yorker. As such, it is an exciting time to study reception, but there is still a gap in the scholarship that this thesis fills. Many have offered postcolonial readings of Britain's empire and Classics, but visual evidence is secondary to the main arguments. Conversely, those looking at classical influence over British art stop before the consequences of whitewashing can be discussed. Thus this project aims to answer one broad question: What was the relationship between Classics and whiteness during Britain's empire and how has that affected the perception of the classical world today? It will do so by exploring several key themes that work together to unravel the Classics' colonial past: the influence of white marble sculptures on ideas of beauty, emerging scientific race theories, the popularity of the Grand Tour, ideas of Greater Rome and Greater Britain, and the changing image of Classics in the last decades of the empire, for example.This thesis comes at a turbulent time in Britain. It is a time where identity is at the forefront of political thought. In debates about Brexit, one question is always brought up: what does British mean? Unfortunately, the resulting answer is always steeped in whiteness. While this white identity has been scrutinised is almost all academic fields (one successful recent example is Roediger's The Image of Whiteness), Classics has remained relatively silent on the issue, and the field is reluctant to uproot its white supremacist roots. I want to challenge this field and unpack the role Classics has played in forming a British identity, and in doing so, pave the way for future scholars of colour to finish the job we started.

该项目揭示了经典著作和古典史学如何在大英帝国时期白人身份的形成过程中发挥作用，以及由此产生的当代殖民后果。它将主要通过艺术的视角，通过研究对古典过去的粉饰以及当代背景下受古典影响的绘画来实现这一点。我的论点还将讨论与古典文学有关的其他社会政治问题，例如“西方文明”的概念，以及今天的古典文学如何通过白人至上和去殖民化来应对它的问题。古典世界不是白人世界是一个公开的秘密，然而在公众想象中想象的形象是一个充满欧洲神话绘画中白人主人公的形象。自18世纪古典文学正式诞生以来，它就被用作帝国的武器，并被用来宣传英国是西方的典范。从1816年的一场议会辩论中坚称帕台农神庙的大理石体现了英国的“民族性”，到更广泛地将大罗马和大不列颠进行比较，不乏证据表明英国对古典历史的痴迷。但这也带来了殖民后果。“英国”身份的存在依赖于比较，而在这种情况下，英国是在与其殖民地进行身份认同。英国变成了它的殖民地所没有的东西：白人、基督徒和“西方人”。经典是沿着同样的帝王意识形态演变的，其后果至今仍很明显。从英国广播公司的特洛伊(由一位黑人演员扮演阿喀琉斯)受到的负面反响，到玛丽·比尔德宣称古典文学与政治无关，很明显，古典文学仍然存在种族问题。几位学者已经对这个问题进行了探索。芭芭拉·戈夫与菲罗兹·瓦苏尼亚和丽贝卡·肯尼迪一起，为我提供了对这个问题的第一次洞察。然而，这个话题相对丰富，学术正在从新的来源涌现，从Eidolon在经典中关于当代问题的文章到莎拉·邦德在《纽约客》上关于粉饰的文章。因此，现在是研究接受的一个令人兴奋的时期，但本论文填补的学术空白仍然存在。许多人提供了对大英帝国和经典著作的后殖民时期的解读，但与主要论点相比，视觉证据是次要的。相反，那些关注古典对英国艺术的影响的人，在讨论粉饰艺术的后果之前就停止了。因此，这个项目旨在回答一个广泛的问题：在大英帝国时期，古典音乐和白色之间的关系是什么？这如何影响了今天人们对古典音乐世界的看法？它将通过探索几个共同解开古典主义殖民历史的关键主题来做到这一点：例如，白色大理石雕塑对美的观念的影响，新兴的科学种族理论，大巡演的受欢迎程度，大罗马和大不列颠的思想，以及古典文学在帝国最后几十年的形象变化。这是一个认同处于政治思想前沿的时代。在关于英国退欧的辩论中，总是会提出一个问题：英国人是什么意思？不幸的是，由此产生的答案总是沉浸在白色中。尽管这种白人身份在几乎所有的学术领域都受到了仔细的审视(最近一个成功的例子是罗迪格的《白种人的形象》)，但经典文学在这个问题上相对保持沉默，该领域不愿根除其白人至上主义的根源。我想挑战这个领域，解开经典在形成英国身份中所扮演的角色，并通过这样做，为未来的色彩学者完成我们开始的工作铺平道路。