Not My Soul: Spartacus (1960)

This screening is part of a series of films presented for the exhibition Not My Soul by the Allard Pierson Museum and the National Slavery Museum.

Introduction by: Koen Vacano

In this classic film, Kirk Douglas plays the enslaved Spartacus, who in 76 BC is sold to a gladiator school and, after gruelling training, rebels against his oppressors. With the support of Jean Simmons as Virinia, his resistance grows into a large-scale slave uprising.

Prior to the screening, Koen Vacano will give an introduction. His introduction invites a critical examination of the way in which Hollywood has portrayed slavery in antiquity, and questions the notion that it differs fundamentally from later forms of slavery.

Koen Vacano researches how and why antiquity matters in the present day. By combining insights from reception studies, cultural history and media studies, he seeks to understand how stories, ideas and art have been transmitted and transformed from antiquity to today’s popular culture, and conversely, how antiquity has been reconstructed time and again in later periods (including the present).

• Language: English
• Duration: 184 mins.
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis
• Year: 1960
• Country: United States