Offering unique and in-depth discussions of films that have been released since 2000, Classical Myth and Film in the New Millennium uses various modern approaches--ranging from myth criticism to psychology and gender studies--to analyze popular movies that make use of themes and stories from Greek and Roman mythology, including Troy, The Hunger Games, Pan's Labyrinth, and Clash of the Titans. FEATURES * Provides a critical analysis of thirteen movies, exploring the themes, characters, and plots that arise from Greek and Roman mythology and also from other Western and contemporary traditions * Covers films that today's students may already be familiar with and enjoy, resulting in a relevant and interesting text * Addresses themes central to the new millennium: the environment, the perils of materialism and excessive consumerism, gender oppression and equality, broken families, and the constant threat of violence * Organizes films into five thematic parts--Homeric Echoes, The Reluctant Hero, Women in the Margins, Coming of Age in the New Millennium, and New Versions of Pygmalion--that provide an interpretive framework for examining archetypes * A substantial general Introduction provides a foundation for studying myth and film, and each part includes an introduction and discussion questions

The Modern Hercules explores the reception of the ancient Greek hero Herakles – the Roman Hercules – in western culture from the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring the hero’s transformations of identity and significance in a wide range of media.

Mark Padilla’s classical reception readings of Alfred Hitchcock features some of the director’s most loved and important films, and demonstrates how they are informed by the educational and cultural classicism of the director’s formative years. The six close readings begin with discussions of the production histories, so as to theorize and clarify how classicism could and did enter the projects. Exploration of the films through a classical lens creates the opportunity to explore new themes and ideological investments. The result is a further appreciation of both the engine of the director’s storytelling creativity and the expressionism of classicism, especially Greek myth and art, in British and American modernism. The analysis organizes the material into two triptychs, one focused on the three films sharing a wrong man pattern (wrongly accused man goes on the run to clear himself), the other treating the films starring the actress Grace Kelly. Chapter One, on The 39 Steps (1935), finds the origins of the wrong man plot in early 20th-century British classicism, and demonstrates that the movie utilizes motifs of Homer’s Odyssey. Chapter Two, on Saboteur (1942), theorizes the impact of the director’s memories of the formalism and myths associated with the Parthenon sculptures housed in the British Museum. Chapter Three, on North by Northwest, participates in the myths of the hero Oedipus, as associated with early Greek epic, Freud, Nietzsche, and Sophocles. Chapter Four, on Dial M for Murder (1954), returns to Homer’s Odyssey in the interpretive use of “the lay of Demodocus,” a story about the sexual triangle of Hephaestus, Aphrodite, and Ares. Chapter Five, on Rear Window (1954), finds its narrative archetype in The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite; the erotic theme of Sirius, the Dog Star, also marks the film. Chapter Six, on To Catch a Thief (1955), offers the opportunity to break from mythic analogues, and to consider the film’s philosophical resonances (Plato and Epicurus) in the context of motifs coalesced around the god Dionysus/Bacchus.

A Cyclops is popularly assumed to be nothing more than a flesh-eating, one-eyed monster. In an accessible, stylish, and academically authoritative investigation, this book seeks to demonstrate that there is far more to it than that - quite apart from the fact that in myths the Cyclopes are not always one-eyed! This book provides a detailed, innovative, and richly illustrated study of the myths relating to the Cyclopes from classical antiquity until the present day. The first part is organised thematically: after discussing various competing scholarly approaches to the myths, the authors analyse ancient accounts and images of the Cyclopes in relation to landscape, physique (especially eyes, monstrosity, and hairiness), lifestyle, gods, names, love, and song. While the man-eating Cyclops Polyphemus, famous already in the Odyssey, plays a major part, so also do the Cyclopes who did monumental building work, as well as those who toiled as blacksmiths. The second part of the book concentrates on the post-classical reception of the myths, including medieval allegory, Renaissance grottoes, poetry, drama, the visual arts, contemporary painting and sculpture, film, and even a circus performance. This book aims to explore not just the perennial appeal of the Cyclopes as fearsome monsters, but the depth and subtlety of their mythology which raises complex issues of thought and emotion.

This volume explores film and television sources in problematic conversation with classical antiquity, to better understand the nature of artistic reception and classical reception in particular. Drawing inspiration from well-theorized fields like adaptation studies, comparative literature, and film, the essays in this collection raise questions fundamental to the future of reception studies. The first section, ‘Beyond Fidelity’, deals with idiosyncratic adaptations of ancient sources; the second section, ‘Beyond Influence’, discusses modern works purporting to adapt ancient figures or themes that are less straightforwardly ancient than they may at first appear; while the last section, ‘Beyond Original’, uses films that lack even these murky connections to antiquity to challenge the notion that studying reception requires establishing historical connections between works. As questions of audience, interpretation, and subjectivity are central to most contemporary fields of study, this is a collection that is of interest to a wide variety of readers in the humanities.

This book gathers eleven scholarly contributions dedicated to the work of Mexican director Arturo Ripstein. The collection, the first of its kind, constitutes a sustained critical engagement with the twenty-nine films made by this highly acclaimed yet under-studied filmmaker. The eleven essays included come from scholars whose work stands at the intersection of the fields of Latin American and Mexican Film Studies, Gender and Queer Studies, Cultural Studies, History and Literary studies. Ripstein’s films, often scripted by his long-time collaborator, Paz Alicia Garciadiego, represent an unprecedented achievement in Mexican and Latin American film. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Ripstein has successfully maintained a prolific output unmatched by any director in the region. Though several book-length studies have been published in Spanish, French, German, and Greek, to date no analogue exists in English. This volume provides a much-needed contribution to the field.

Questing through the Riordanverse: Studying Religion with the Works of Rick Riordan examines the works of Rick Riordan and explores how these works relate to Religion and Theology. Despite the success and popularity of the works, scholars have not given the Riordanverse as much attention as other Young Adult and Middle Grade fantasy books published during the first part of the Twenty-First Century. This volume begins to address that vacuum, drawing from a number of fields, including Psychology, Media Studies, Queer Theory, and African American Studies, to offer an interdisciplinary interpretation of Riordan’s works and their impact on Religion and Theology. Contributors represent a diverse background, including perspectives from young scholars and students who grew up with the series to senior scholars considering where the series fits in the tradition of fantasy, religion, and literature.