The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film: From Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings

by Samuel J. Umland, Rebecca A. Umland

Overview

This is the first book to examine the various uses of the Arthurian legend in Hollywood film, covering films from the 1920s to the present. The authors use five representational categories: intertextual collage (or cult film); melodrama, which focuses on the love triangle; conservative propaganda, pervasive during the Cold War; the Hollywood epic; and the postmodern quest, which commonly employs the grail portion of the legend. Arguing that filmmakers rely on the audience's rudimentary familiarity with the legend, the authors show that only certain features of the legend are activated at any particular time. This fascinating study shows us how the legend has been adapted and how through the popular medium of Hollywood films, the Arthurian legend has survived and flourished.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313297984
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/21/1996
Series:	Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture , #57
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1490L (what's this?)

About the Author

REBECCA A. UMLAND is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and has published widely on Arthurian literature.

SAMUEL J. UMLAND is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He has published articles on the teaching of literature, film, and film theory. He is editor of Philip K. Dick: Contemporary Critical Interpretations (Greenwood, 1995).

Table of Contents

Preface
The Mythopoeic Nature of the Arthurian Legend and Its Methods of Transmission
The Arthurian Legend as Intertextual Collage
The Arthurian Legend as 1950s Hollywood Melodrama
The Arthurian Legend as Forms of Propaganda
The Arthurian Legend as Hollywood Epic: John Boorman's Excalibur
The Arthurian Legend as Postmodern Quest
Filmography
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Six essays explore how the Matter of Britain lives on in celluloid, especially focusing on uses that are not nor intend to be faithful representations of written versions, but draw on the audience's vague knowledge of the legend's features to pursue some other purpose. They discuss Arthurian legend as intertextual collage, Hollywood melodrama, propaganda, Hollywood epic, and postmodern quest. Includes a few stills. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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