Antiquity Now

Written in a lively and accessible style Antiquity Now opens our gaze to the myriad uses and abuses of classical antiquity in contemporary fiction film comics drama television - and even internet forums. With every chapter focusing on a different aspect of classical reception - including sexuality politics gender and ethnicity - this book explores the ideological motivations behind contemporary American allusions to the classical world. Ultimately this kaleidoscope of receptions - from calls for marriage equality to examinations of gang violence to passionate pleas for peace (or war) - reveals a ''classical antiquity'' that reconfigures itself daily as modernity explains itself to itself through ever-expanding technologies and media. Antiquity Now thus examines the often-surprising redeployment of the art and literature of the ancient world a geography charged with especial value in the contemporary imagination.