Knossos and the prophets of modernism /
Cathy Gere.
- Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, c2009.
- x, 277 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
The birth of tragedy, 1822-1897 -- An archaeology of heroes -- A prophecy of tragedy -- Fascism's Greek prehistory -- What Ariadne is -- Stand-up tragedy, 1851-1899 -- The dry smell of time -- Eastern questions -- The road to the labyrinth -- Greek defeat -- Reconstructing the nation -- Ariadne's lament, 1900-1913 -- Ariadne's throne -- The great Cretan mother -- Ariadne's dancing floor -- The making of a goddess -- The Villa Ariadne -- Cretan victory -- Ariadne in Chirico city -- The concrete labyrinth, 1914-1935 -- The throne room complex -- Captain of the blacks -- Court ladies -- Priest-king and cowgirls -- Lost boys -- The lady of sports -- The magic ring -- The psyche element -- Little souls -- Psyche's labyrinth, 1919-1941 -- Mythical method -- The decline of Crete -- Achilles' shield -- Freudian archaeology -- Psyche's muse -- Crete on the couch -- The battle of Crete -- The rebirth of comedy, 1942-1949 -- Psyche reborn -- Paradise before Eve -- Psyche rewritten -- The consort -- New Crete -- The birth of farce, 1950-2000 -- Romantic revivals -- The white goddess -- Black Athena -- The road back to war.
In the spring of 1900, British archaeologist Arthur Evans began to excavate the palace of Knossos on Crete, bringing ancient Greek legends to life just as a new century dawned amid far-reaching questions about human history, art, and culture. Over the next three decades, Evans engaged in an unprecedented reconstruction project, creating a complex of concrete buildings on the site that owed at least as much to modernist architecture as they did to Bronze Age remains. In the process, he fired the imaginations of a whole generation of intellectuals and artists, whose work would drive movements as disparate as fascism and pacifism, feminism and psychoanalysis. With Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism, Cathy Gere relates the fascinating story of Evans' excavation and its long-term effects on Western culture. - Publisher.