Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and - Performing Art

To what extent did mythological figures such as Circe and Medea influence the representation of the powerful ''oriental'' enchantress in modern Western art? What role did the ancient gods and heroes play in the construction of the imaginary worlds of the modern fantasy genre? What is the role of undead creatures like zombies and vampires in mythological films? Looking across the millennia, from the distrust of ancient magic and oriental cults, which threatened the new-born Christian religion, to the revival and adaptation of ancient myths and religion in the arts centuries later, this book offers an original analysis of the reception of ancient magic and the supernatural, across a wide variety of different media - from comics to film, from painting to opera. Working in a variety of fields across the globe, the authors of these essays deconstruct certain scholarly traditions by proposing original interdisciplinary approaches and collaborations, showing to what extent the visual and performing arts of different periods interlink and shape cultural and social identities.>

About the author

Filippo Carlà-Uhink is Professor of Ancient History at Potsdam University, Germany. His main research areas are the social and economical history of Late Antiquity, the history of the Roman Republic, the cultural history of ancient Rome, with a particular attention for space concepts and the construction of space, and the reception of antiquity in modern media. He is co-editor of Bloomsbury Academic's series IMAGINES - Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing Arts, and editor of Caesar, Attila & Co. Comics und die Antike (2014) and, with Irene Berti, Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).Irene Berti is a Teaching Fellow at the Pädagogische Hochschule, Heidelberg, Germany, and a member of the Collaborative Research Centre 'Material Text Cultures, Materiality and Presence of writing in non typographic societies'.

Product details

• Authors: Irene Berti, Filippo Berti Carla, Filippo Carla-Uhink, Filippo Berti Carla-Uhink
• Assisted by: Irene Berti (Editor), Berti Irene (Editor), Filippo Carla (Editor), Filippo Carlà-Uhink (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2016
• EAN: 9781350007949
• ISBN: 978-1-350-00794-9
• No. of pages: 352
• Series: Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception; Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; HISTORY / Ancient / General, HISTORY / World, ART / History / Ancient & Classical, RELIGION / Ancient, History of art / art & design styles, General & world history, History of Art, Ancient History, Classical history / classical civilisation, General and world history, Ancient religions & mythologies, Ancient religions and Mythologies