This book demonstrates how the Romans constructed garden boundaries specifically in order to open up or undermine the division between a number of oppositions, such as inside/outside, sacred/profane, art/nature, and real/imagined. Using case studies from across literature and material and visual culture, Victoria Austen explores the perception of individual garden sites in response to their limits, and showcases how the Romans delighted in playing with concepts of boundedness and separation.
Transculturally, the garden is understood as a marked-off and cultivated space. Distinct from their surroundings, gardens are material and symbolic spaces that constitute both universal and culturally specific ways of accommodating the natural world and expressing human attitudes and values. Although we define these spaces explicitly through the notions of separation and division, in many cases we are unable to make sense of the most basic distinction between ‘garden’ and ‘not-garden’. In response to this ambiguity, Austen interrogates the notion of the ‘boundary’ as an essential characteristic of the Roman garden.
By:
Dr Victoria Austen
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350265189
ISBN 10: 1350265187
Series: Ancient Environments
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 09 March 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Defining Garden Space Chapter 1: Setting the Framework Chapter 2: Who has the time? Virgil, Columella, and Hortus Poetry Chapter 3: Augustus’ Garden Room? Re-Framing the Ara Pacis Augustae Chapter 4: Distinguit et Miscet: Framing Roman Villa Gardens Conclusion: Seneca’s Thyestes and the Anti-Garden Notes Bibliography Index
Victoria Austen is Robert A. Oden, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow for Innovation in the Humanities and Classics at Carleton College, MN, USA. She received her PhD in Classics from King’s College London, UK.
Reviews for Analysing the Boundaries of the Ancient Roman Garden: (Re)Framing the Hortus
[T]he book introduces new avenues to explore, and Austen has an engaging voice that blends an inventive point of view with critical acuity... Austen’s work will be useful for scholars and students interested in garden spaces and theoretical approaches to that space. Intermedial approaches can be difficult to tackle, because one must master a large amount of material, and this is apparent at moments in Austen’s case studies, but her book will inspire the reader to view Roman gardens with more curiosity and care. * The Classical Outlook *
