Classical Myth on Screen

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Meredith E. Safran, Monica S. Cyrino

      Pages 1-11

3. The Hero’s Struggle

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

      PDF

   2. “Italian Stallion” Meets “Breaker of Horses”: Achilles and Hector in Rocky IV (1985)

      • Lisl Walsh

      Pages 15-26

   3. The Isolated Hero: Papillon (1973), Cast Away (2000), and the Myth of Philoctetes

      • Scott A. Barnard

      Pages 27-36

   4. The Limits of Human Knowledge: Oedipal Problems in A Serious Man (2009)

      • Osman Umurhan

      Pages 37-47

   5. Orpheus in a Gray Flannel Suit: George Nolfi’s The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

      • Seán Easton

      Pages 49-59

4. Fashioning the Feminine

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

      PDF

   2. Dystopian Amazons: Fantasies of Patriarchy in Le Gladiatrici (1963)

      • Antony Augoustakis

      Pages 63-71

   3. Arya, Katniss, and Merida: Empowering Girls through the Amazonian Archetype

      • Beverly J. Graf

      Pages 73-82

   4. The Suspense-Thriller’s Pygmalion Complex: Masculine Desire in Vertigo (1958), Les Biches (1968), and Body Double (1984)

      • Kaelie Thompson

      Pages 83-93

   5. Plastic Surgery: Failed Pygmalions and Decomposing Women in Les Yeux sans Visage (1960) and Bride of Re-Animator (1989)

      • Hunter H. Gardner

      Pages 95-105

5. Negotiating the Cosmic Divide

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

      PDF

   2. Savior of the Working Man: Promethean Allusions in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927)

      • Alex McAuley

      Pages 109-119

   3. Magic, Music, Race: Screening “Black Enchantment” after Black Orpheus (1959)

      • Monica S. Cyrino

      Pages 121-132

   4. Re-conceiving Hercules: Divine Paternity and Christian Anxiety in Hercules (2005)

      • Meredith E. Safran

      Pages 133-145

   5. The Twilight of Olympus: Deicide and the End of the Greek Gods

      • Vincent Tomasso

      Pages 147-157

6. Cinemyth-Making

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159

      PDF

   2. Of Marketing and Men: Making the Cinematic Greek Hero, 2010–2014

      • Stacie Raucci

      Pages 161-171

   3. John Cameron Mitchell’s Aristophanic Cinema: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

      • Lorenzo F. Garcia Jr.

      Pages 173-182

An examination of how screen texts embrace, refute, and reinvent the cultural heritage of antiquity, this volume looks at specific story-patterns and archetypes from Greco-Roman culture. The contributors offer a variety of perspectives, highlighting key cultural relay points at which a myth is received and reformulated for a particular audience.

• Classics
• Film
• Mythology
• Greek Gods
• Heroes
• Classical Studies
• Classical Tradition
• Classical Reception
• cinema
• culture
• Fritz Lang

“This is a quite informative, useful book. … This book is full of unexpected insights and information not only of great use to the scholar, but especially to the non-specialist instructor interested in incorporating modern (and not obviously mythological) movies into a mythology class or a wide variety of other courses.” (Jean Alvares, CJ-Online, April, 2016) 

"Hollywood and art-house movies use classical mythology as a means of thinking about contemporary preoccupations. Classical Myth on Screen is a fresh and energetic look at myth in the movies, with new insights on myth, gender, and religion, as well as the processes of cinematic myth-making. There are many delights in this collection; I will never think about Orpheus or Katniss Everdeen in quite the same way again." - Helen Morales, author of Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction

Antony Augoustakis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA Scott A. Barnard, Rutgers University, USA David Bullen, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK Dan Curley, Skidmore College, USA Seán Easton, Gustavus Adolphus College, USA Lorenzo F. Garcia Jr., University of New Mexico, USA Hunter Gardner, University of South Carolina, USA Beverly J. Graf, Pepperdine University, USA Alex McAuley, McGill University, Canada Stacie Raucci, Union College, USA Anise K. Strong, Western Michigan University, USA Kaelie Thompson, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA Vincent Tomasso, Ripon College, USA Osman Umurhan, University of New Mexico, USA Lisl Walsh, Beloit College, USA

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