Reading the Signs
Hierarchy, Ambiguity, and Cosmopolitanism in the Roman Empire and Early India
Public Defence of PhD thesis by Karsten Johanning.
This thesis confronts the issue of cultural elite integration in the early and high Roman empire (c. first three centuries AD) in a new way. Attempting to bypass earlier and present discussions about Romanization, identity, and globalization, the approach chosen here – inspired by the Indologist Sheldon Pollock – uses the literary properties of three ancient prestige languages (Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin) as a model for elite interaction. This is because the fixity of writing, combined with the stable grammatical and aesthetic properties of prestige languages, made them learnable and movable media, connecting imperial elites across long distances in cosmopolitan, or translocal, communities. In my comparative analyses of literature from ancient Rome and India, I argue that a central ability of these respective elites was to read signs in courtly, civic, and religious settings – and in ways that integrated both hierarchy and ambiguity.
Denne afhandling angriber spgsmålet om Romerrigets kulturelle integration af eliter i tidlig kejsertid (ca. 1.‐3. årh. e.Kr.) på en ny måde. I et forsg på at omgå tidligere og nuværende forklaringsrammer som fx romanisering, identitet og globalisering, har min tilgang her – inspireret af indologen Sheldon Pollock – brugt de litterære egenskaber af tre antikke ’prestigesprog’ (sanskrit, oldgræsk og latin) som model for social interaktion. Fastlåsningen vha. skrift, kombineret med prestigesprogenes stabile grammatiske og æstetiske egenskaber, gjorde dem nemlig flytbare i tid og sted, så sprogene kunne læres af – og forbinde – imperiale eliter i kosmopolitiske, translokale fællesskaber. Centralt i mine komparative analyser af litteratur fra det antikke Rom og Indien står disse respektive eliters evne til at læse tegn i sociale sammenhænge; især hof, by og religion. Her var hierarki og tvetydighed helt integrerede strelser.
Assessment Committee
- Associate Professor Jane Fejfer, chair (University of Copenhagen)
- Professor Greg Woolf (University of London)
- Professor Daud Ali (University of Pennsylvania)
Moderator of the defence
- Associate Professor Mogens Pelt (University of Copenhagen)
Copies of the thesis will be available for consultation at the following three places:
- At the Information Desk of the Library of the Faculty of Humanities
- In Reading Room East of the Royal Library (the Black Diamond)
- At the SAXO Institute, Karen Blixens Plads 8
