Julia Habetzeder
 

Contact: julia.habetzeder@antiken.su.se

Research project: The Dancing Male (work title) - The study will be an iconographical analysis of the motif of the dancing male during the Roman period. The aim of the study is to investigate how dance was understood in relation to the creation of male identity. The Romans seem to have had an ambivalent attitude towards dance. Dance played an important part in Roman society, especially within religious practices and as entertainment. Even so, literary sources express aversions against respected members of society dancing. This ambivalence seems to be reflected within the Roman iconography. Those male characters that are depicted dancing are generally clearly marked as deviant, appearing mostly as satyrs, dwarfs or men of exotic origin. The main questions of the study are: Which men are depicted dancing? Does the motif of the dancing male change over time, and if so, in which manner does it change? How does the motif relate to the experience of masculinity in Roman society? How does the motif illustrate the creation of identity in Roman times?

Principal supervisor: Professor Anne-Marie Leander, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies

Supervisor: Professor Margaretha Rossholm-Lagerlöf, Department of History of Art

Interests: Aesthetics, Roman iconography, gender theory.