Reception Of Mesopotamia On Film

Explore an insightful account of the reception of Mesopotamia in modern cinema In Reception of Mesopotamia on Film, Dr. Maria de Fátima Rosa explores how the Ancient Mesopotamian civilization was portrayed by the movie industry, especially in America and Italy, and how it was used to convey analogies between ancient and contemporary cultural and moral contexts. Spanning a period that stretches from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, the book explores how the Assyrian and Babylonian elites, particularly kings, queens, and priestesses, were perceived and represented on screen by filmmakers. A focus on the role played by Ancient Near Eastern women and on the polytheistic religion practiced in the land between the rivers will be provided. This book also offers an insightful interpretation of the bias message that most of these films portray and how the Mesopotamian past and Antiquity brought to light and stimulated the debate on emerging 20th century political and social issues. The book also offers: A thorough introduction to the Old Testament paradigm and the romanticism of classical authors A comprehensive exploration of the literary reception of the Mesopotamian legacy and its staging Practical discussions of the rediscovery, appropriation, and visual reproduction of Assyria and Babylonia In-depth examinations of cinematic genres and cinematographic contexts Perfect for students of the history of antiquity and cinematographic history, Reception of Mesopotamia on Film is also an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in reception studies.

"Introduction: reception of Mesopotamia and the cinema lens reception studies and cinema studies on reception of antiquity are relatively recent. Charles Martindale first included reception theory in the field of Classical Studies in 1993 with Redeeming the Text: Latin poetry and the hermeneutics of reception. The Professor of Latin from the University of Bristol was inspired by the research line inaugurated by the Constance School, with scholars such as Wolfgang Iser and especially Hans Robert Jauss, who, in the 1960s, boosted the field named Aesthetic of Reception. Jauss postulated that the observer of a work of art should be given an active role. In broad terms, he considered that the work of art was not a static or timeless phenomenon . In his own words, "A literary work is not an object that stands by itself and that offers the same view to each reader in each period. It is not a monument that monologically reveals its timeless essence. It is much more like an orchestration that strikes ever new resonances among its readers and that frees the text from the material of the words and brings it to a contemporary existence" . Martindale thus resorted to this seminal work to introduce new conceptions in the study of Classics, claiming, like Jauss before him, that an author has no control over his work since it does not have an immutable meaning, always depending on the interpretations made about it and hence subjected to the cognitive role of the observer / reader, the "active principle" "--

This book is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways in which popular culture has consumed aspects of the ancient Near East to construct new realities. The editors have brought together an impressive line-up of scholars-archaeologists, philologists, historians, and art historians-to reflect on how objects, ideas, and interpretations of the ancient Near East have been remembered, constructed, reimagined, mythologized, or indeed forgotten within our shared cultural memories. The exploration of cultural memories has revealed how they inform the values, structures, and daily life of societies over time. This is therefore not a collection of essays about the deep past but rather about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

In film imagery, urban spaces show up not only as spatial settings of a story, but also as projected ideas and forms that aim to recreate and capture the spirit of cultures, societies and epochs. Some cinematic cities have even managed to transcend fiction to become part of modern collective memory. Can we imagine a futuristic city not inspired at least remotely by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis? In the same way, ancient Babylon, Troy and Rome can hardly be shaped in popular imagination without conscious or subconscious references to the striking visions of Griffiths’ Intolerance, Petersen’s Troy and Scott’s Gladiator, to mention only a few influential examples. Imagining Ancient Cities in Film explores for the first time in scholarship film representations of cities of the Ancient World from early cinema to the 21st century. The volume analyzes the different choices made by filmmakers, art designers and screen writers to recreate ancient urban spaces as more or less convincing settings of mythical and historical events. In looking behind and beyond intended archaeological accuracy, symbolic fantasy, primitivism, exoticism and Hollywood-esque monumentality, this volume pays particular attention to the depiction of cities as faces of ancient civilizations, but also as containers of moral ideas and cultural fashions deeply rooted in the contemporary zeitgeist and in continuously revisited traditions.

An introduction to how the ancient world is represented in film, especially in Hollywood cinema, and considers the potential that movies have to help us think about antiquity and their relationship with traditional academic historical work.

Casablanca is one of the most celebrated Hollywood films of all time, its iconic romance enshrined in collective memory across generations. Drawing from archival materials, industry trade journals, and cultural commentary, Barbara Klinger explores the history of Casablanca's circulation in the United States from the early 1940s to the present by examining its exhibition via radio, repertory houses, television, and video. By resituating the film in the dynamically changing industrial, technological, and cultural circumstances that have defined its journey over eight decades, Klinger challenges our understanding of its meaning and reputation as both a Hollywood classic and a cult film. Through this single-film survey, Immortal Films proposes a new approach to the study of film history and aesthetics and, more broadly, to cinema itself as a medium in constant interface with other media as a necessary condition of its own public existence and endurance.

This volume focuses on the reception of antiquity in the performing and visual arts from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. It explores the tensions and relations of gender, sexuality, eroticism and power in reception. Such universal themes dictated plots and characters of myth and drama, but also served to portray historical figures, events and places from Classical history. Their changing reception and reinterpretation across time has created stereotypes, models of virtue or immoral conduct, that blend the original features from the ancient world with a diverse range of visual and performing arts of the modern era.The volume deconstructs these traditions and shows how arts of different periods interlink to form and transmit these images to modern audiences and viewers. Drawing on contributions from across Europe and the United States, a trademark of the book is the inclusive treatment of all the arts beyond the traditional limits of academic disciplines.

The first systematic attempt to focus on the instrumental role of silent cinema in early twentieth-century conceptualizations of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. It is located at the intersection of film studies, classics, Bible studies and cultural studies.