Experiencing Immersion in Antiquity and Modernity
From Narrative to Virtual Reality
Experiencing Immersion in Antiquity and Modernity
From Narrative to Virtual Reality
Description
This book examines the links between experiencing immersion in antiquity and modernity. Immersive experiences are big business within today's creative economy. Forms range from immersive museum exhibitions, theatrical performances, art installations and experiences facilitated through virtual and augmented reality technologies. Yet the idea of immersion is not new; paintings, sculpture and theatre have all been theorised historically in terms of illusion, realism and immersion.
From antiquity to modernity, there has been an interest in theorising the relationship between reality and virtual realities, and in contemplating whether feeling present in an alternate universe is a sought-after experience or something problematic and dangerous. The chapters in this volume explore the warnings against immersion voiced by Plato and embodied in the figure of the Homeric sirens, contrasted with the pro-immersion perspectives championed by Aristotelian mimesis and embodied in the concept of enargeia. The volume also examines the integration of the ancient world into immersive novels, games, museum exhibitions and theatrical performances. Practice-as-Research contributions explore the benefits of this synergy from practitioner perspectives. Contributors from diverse fields – including classical reception studies, art history, game studies, heritage studies and theatre studies – approach the interplay between antiquity and modernity from varied standpoints. Together, they uncover previously unforeseen connections across disciplines and lay the groundwork for future research and additional classically inflected immersive experiences.
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Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
1. Antiquity and Immersivity: An Introduction, Emma Cole (University of Queensland, Australia)
Part One: Immersion in Literature
2. Reading the River Maeánder: Immersive Narrative in the Literature of the Labyrinth, Rae Muhlstock (University at Albany, USA)
3. The Sirens and the Dark Side of Immersion in Antiquity, Jonas Grethlein (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
4. Immersion, Emotion and Sensory Hierarchy: Thucydides beyond enargeia?, Elizabeth Webb (Open University, UK)
Part Two: Immersion and Imagery
5. Total Immersion Tropes: Environmental Materiality and Roman World-Formation, Diana Spencer (University of Birmingham, UK)
6. Imitating Passions Visually, Imitating Ancient Authors: Lessing's Laokoon as an 'Immersive' Lens for a Comparison between Vergil and Petronius, Tiziana Ragno (Università di Foggia, Italy)
7. 'To revive ancient life': Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Perceptual Immersion, Marte Stinis (University of York, UK)
Part Three: Immersion, Theatre and Intermediality
8. Experiencing the Sacred in the Theatre of Pentheus: Bad Faith Immersion from the Performance Group to Punchdrunk, David Bullen (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
9. The Voice of Gods in Your Ear: Becoming the Avatar in Immersive Performance, Misha Myers (University of Greenwich, UK)
Part Four: Immersion and Gameplay
10. Immersivity in 'Virtual Antiquity', Richard Cole (University of Bristol, UK)
11. Immersive Metalepsis and (other) 'Fantasies of Antiquity' in Games, Benjamin Eldon Stevens (Howard University, USA)
Part Five: Immersion and Heritage
12. Bringing the Voices of Roman London to life: Poetry and Space, Charlotte Parkyn (Notre Dame International, UK) & Josephine Balmer (Independent Scholar, UK)
13. Ancient Roman House to Modern Museum: Doubling the Horizons of Immersion through Exhibitions, Alina Kozlovski (University of New England, Australia)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | 10 Jul 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 248 |
| ISBN | 9781350419117 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 9 bw illus |
| Series | Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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