Seeing Bearden’s “Circe”
Conceptions in Art and Poetry
By Margaret Dunn
This visual essay was created for Race & Ethnicity in the Ancient World, a course taught by Professor Kate Meng Brassel. The class sought to uncover how ancient peoples perceived both themselves and others in regard to ethnic identity, and how those perceptions were used or appropriated in the modern era. This piece studies the work of Romare Bearden, the esteemed collagist known for depicting black American culture in cubist forms, and the book of poetry put out in response to his series “A Black Odyssey.”
Margaret Dunn (C’23) is a student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in English and Classical Studies.