Papers by Pantelis Michelakis
Modern Language Review, 2007
Routledge eBooks, Jan 29, 2018
The presence of dancing girls 'in desert tents or in the courts of Roman emperors or within the p... more The presence of dancing girls 'in desert tents or in the courts of Roman emperors or within the palaces of oriental monarchs' 1 is a well-established theme of films related to the worlds of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East throughout the twentieth century. In fact, dancing girls are so common in such films that they often go unnoticed by both the characters within the film narratives themselves and their spectators. As David Meyer argues, these dancers are little more than 'set-dressingpart of the furnishings, mood enhancerswhich add nothing to the narrative.' 2 But in parallel to the dancing girls of epic and sword-and-sandal films, and completely independently from them, another type of dancer inspired by antiquity developed in the course of the twentieth century. This is a type of dancer associated with experimental, avant-garde choreography by and with the film camera. From Martha Graham's Night Journey to Pina Bausch's Orpheus and Eurydice and DV8's Enter Achilles, 3 the art form of 'dance film' returned to the concept of the Greek body to explore complex ideas about alternative forms of aesthetic, personal and political freedom. 4 The aim of this chapter is not to examine these two distinct types of dance film but to return to a point in time before this bifurcation between commercial and avant-garde forms of film takes place, to explore the 1 Mayer (2013) 100. 2 Mayer (2013) 100.
Tyla Cascaes (The University of Queensland) 'The Young and the Restless: Receptions of a Republic... more Tyla Cascaes (The University of Queensland) 'The Young and the Restless: Receptions of a Republican Caesar' Like many ancient figures, Julius Caesar is often used to promote or diminish political power in the present. Different images or tropes of Caesar have been employed by modern authors to convey a desired message on the uses or abuses of political power today. For example, an author will focus on one aspect of Caesar's character and will often portray him either as a popular politician, a brilliant general or a ruthless dictator. Within these tropes there is still room for further distinctions. By emphasising certain characteristics and focusing on particular events, one can drastically adjust the
Theorising Performance : Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice, 2010
This exciting collection constitutes the first analysis of the modern performance of ancient Gree... more This exciting collection constitutes the first analysis of the modern performance of ancient Greek drama from a theoretical perspective. The last three decades have seen a remarkable revival of the performance of ancient Greek drama; some ancient plays - Sophocles' 'Oedipus', Euripides' 'Medea' - have established a distinguished place in the international performance repertoire, and attracted eminent directors including Peter Stein, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Sellars, and Katie Mitchell. Staging texts first written two and a half thousand years ago, for all-male, ritualised, outdoor performance in masks in front of a pagan audience, raises quite different intellectual questions from staging any other canonical drama, including Shakespeare. But the discussion of this development in modern performance has until now received scant theoretical analysis. This book provides the solution in the form of a lively interdisciplinary dialogue, inspired by a conference held at the Archive of Performances of Greek & Roman Drama (APGRD) in Oxford, between sixteen experts in Classics, Drama, Music, Cultural History and the world of professional theatre. The book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Classics and Drama alike. Eric Dodson-Robinson's review of Theorising Performance for Bryn Mawr Classical Review: http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2010/2010-10-75.html
The aim of this article is to show that readings of Riefenstahl as an artistic genius with full c... more The aim of this article is to show that readings of Riefenstahl as an artistic genius with full control over all aspects of her work have closed off more complex readings of the prologue of her film Olympia (1938). I argue that we cannot begin to appreciate the density of this section of the film and its complex attitude toward ancient Greece without taking a closer look at the troubled collaboration between Leni Riefenstahl and Willy Zielke as two filmmakers with different visions, preoccupations, methods of work, and types of investment in the making of the prologue. In doing so, I draw attention to the hermeneutic difficulty of policing the boundaries between different types of aesthetics and different types of politics as they are played out in this section of Olympia. I also tease out some of the difficulties around the question of how to situate the different themes and practices of the prologue within broader cinematic and extra cinematic histories of fascist aesthetics as they intersect with issues of classicism and modern subjectivity.
Contrary to the widely held view that early films are largely lost, dozens of films related to an... more Contrary to the widely held view that early films are largely lost, dozens of films related to ancient Greece, Rome and the other civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean survive scattered in film archives across Europe and North America. Only a small number of these films have been restored digitally and made available through home‐video formats or online video streaming. the great majority of the films is accessible only through film prints available for onsite viewing in archival film collections with flatbed film‐viewing facilities or in specialized film festivals. What is distinctive about this body of archival films and its contexts? Why is it that a viewing technology and an art form associated with modernity turned its attention to antiquity from the very beginning? Which antiquity did it engage with? These are the questions that will form the basis for the discussion undertaken in this chapter.
<p>The aim of this volume is to introduce a largely neglected area of existing interactions... more <p>The aim of this volume is to introduce a largely neglected area of existing interactions between Greco-Roman antiquity and media theory. It addresses the question of why interactions in this area matter, and how they might be developed further. The volume seeks to promote more media attentiveness among scholars of Greece and Rome. It also aims to create more awareness of the presence of the classics in media theory. It foregrounds the persistency of Greco-Roman paradigms across the different strands of media theory. And it calls for a closer consideration of the conceptual underpinnings of scholarly practices around the transformation of ancient Greece and Rome into 'classical' cultures.</p>
Friedrich Kittler. Neue Lektüren
This chapter explores the ways in which the generic label of ‘epic’ might be deemed relevant for ... more This chapter explores the ways in which the generic label of ‘epic’ might be deemed relevant for Ridley Scott’s film Prometheus (2012), and more broadly for the ways in which a discussion about the meanings of epic in early twenty-first-century cinema might be undertaken outside the genre of ‘historical epic’. It argues for the need to explore how ‘epic science fiction’ operates in Scott’s Prometheus in ways that both relate and transcend common definitions of the term ‘epic’ in contemporary popular culture. It also focuses on the unorthodox models of biological evolution of the film’s narrative, suggesting ways in which they can help with genre criticism. When it comes to cinematic intertextuality, a discussion about generic taxonomies and transformations cannot be conducted at the beginning of the twenty-first century without reflecting on the tropes that cinema animates and the fears it enacts at the heart of our genetic imaginary.
<p>The aim of this volume is to introduce a largely neglected area of existing interactions... more <p>The aim of this volume is to introduce a largely neglected area of existing interactions between Greco-Roman antiquity and media theory. It addresses the question of why interactions in this area matter, and how they might be developed further. The volume seeks to promote more media attentiveness among scholars of Greece and Rome. It also aims to create more awareness of the presence of the classics in media theory. It foregrounds the persistency of Greco-Roman paradigms across the different strands of media theory. And it calls for a closer consideration of the conceptual underpinnings of scholarly practices around the transformation of ancient Greece and Rome into 'classical' cultures.</p>
Classics and the uses of reception / edited by Charles A. Martindale and Richard F. Thomas. p. cm... more Classics and the uses of reception / edited by Charles A. Martindale and Richard F. Thomas. p. cm.-(Classical receptions) Contents List of Figures viii Notes on Contributors ix Introduction: Thinking Through Reception
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Papers by Pantelis Michelakis