The Rock, a modern gladiator? (from SLAM! wrestling)

(Please feel free to comment/add to my ramblings!) After looking through and researching, I have focused my topic down to the influence that mass entertainment had on urban life in Ancient Rome. The main examples that I use as mass entertainment are spectator sport, such as gladiatorial combat, and festival, such as saturnalia. This can be broken down to a few different investigations: the types of mass entertainment that existed and their origins, the purpose of mass entertainment (for organizers and participants), and the significance/monumentality of the mass entertainment that arose, affecting the city and its inhabitants, and how we can relate these spectacles to mass entertainment enjoyed in cities today, especially television/film entertainment.

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Some Terms/Concepts

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Types of mass entertainment/Origins

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Initial objectives of mass entertainment

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Consequent significance of mass entertainment on the dynamic of the city

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Parallels and connections to today

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References

Braudel, Fernand. The Mediterranean in the Ancient World. London: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 2001.

Camp, John M., The Athenian Agora: Excavations in the Heart of Classical Athens, London: Thames and Hudson, 1986.

Gill, N.S. "Solstice Celebrations." About.com: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/holidaysfestivals/a/solsticeceleb.htm

Imber, Margaret. "Roman Gladiators; Roman history, roman civilization." Notes from Roman History. Maine: Bates College, 1999.

Io Saturnalia! http://hometown.aol.com/barbtail/Saturnalia1.html.

Lindsay, Jack. The Ancient World: Manners and Morals New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968.

McManus, Barbara F. "Gladiator Games." The College of New Rochelle: 1999.

Saturnalia. http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/saturnalia.html

Storey, Glenn R. "The population of ancient Rome" Antiquity. Cambridge: Dec 1997 71:274 966-978

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Posted at May 26/2005 11:28AM:
Michael Shanks: define entertainment in relation to "the media" - media forms

so gladiatorial combat is a form of theater ...

this means that urban entertainment today is so connected to particular mass media forms

and thay challenge the definition of the city - the city is everywhere

what then of live performance?

define the features of entertainment - spectator, skill, performance, player, rules, liveness

NB event based entertainment - ritual calendars

NB carnival - inversion

produce a typology