The Infernal Return: The Recurrence of the Primordial in Films of the Reaction Years, 1977-1983
George Lukas and other leading filmmakers acknowledge their indebtedness to mythographic scholarship on archetypes. In his new study, author Rodney Farnsworth identifies a pattern of filmmakers' obsessions with archetypical rituals centered on sacrifice and the family in films made between 1977 and 1983, a period of political upheaval on both sides of the Atlantic. Combining a strong historical reading of the films in a sociopolitical context and utilizing Queer Theory as a framework for his arguments, Farnsworth offers a close examination of key films of the period, including works by Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, and Francis Ford Coppola, and provides a fascinating and timely glimpse of an important political and cinematic time.

Marking the end of a more liberal era, the late seventies and early eighties witnessed the growth of reactionary conservative movements such as the New Religious Political Right. These were the years that gave birth to movies—from esoteric art-house pictures to blockbusters such as Star Wars—that seemed in many cases to be adaptations of primordial mythology, subverting liberal-to-moderate views into reactionary depictions of family life. Although filmmakers had turned to these myths to shape their works, Farnsworth observes, the unstable, volatile nature of the archetypes deconstructed their best social intentions into something rich, strange, and deadly. This thought-provoking work will be of interest to students of social history as well as film studies.

1112076608
The Infernal Return: The Recurrence of the Primordial in Films of the Reaction Years, 1977-1983
George Lukas and other leading filmmakers acknowledge their indebtedness to mythographic scholarship on archetypes. In his new study, author Rodney Farnsworth identifies a pattern of filmmakers' obsessions with archetypical rituals centered on sacrifice and the family in films made between 1977 and 1983, a period of political upheaval on both sides of the Atlantic. Combining a strong historical reading of the films in a sociopolitical context and utilizing Queer Theory as a framework for his arguments, Farnsworth offers a close examination of key films of the period, including works by Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, and Francis Ford Coppola, and provides a fascinating and timely glimpse of an important political and cinematic time.

Marking the end of a more liberal era, the late seventies and early eighties witnessed the growth of reactionary conservative movements such as the New Religious Political Right. These were the years that gave birth to movies—from esoteric art-house pictures to blockbusters such as Star Wars—that seemed in many cases to be adaptations of primordial mythology, subverting liberal-to-moderate views into reactionary depictions of family life. Although filmmakers had turned to these myths to shape their works, Farnsworth observes, the unstable, volatile nature of the archetypes deconstructed their best social intentions into something rich, strange, and deadly. This thought-provoking work will be of interest to students of social history as well as film studies.

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The Infernal Return: The Recurrence of the Primordial in Films of the Reaction Years, 1977-1983

The Infernal Return: The Recurrence of the Primordial in Films of the Reaction Years, 1977-1983

by Rodney Farnsworth
The Infernal Return: The Recurrence of the Primordial in Films of the Reaction Years, 1977-1983

The Infernal Return: The Recurrence of the Primordial in Films of the Reaction Years, 1977-1983

by Rodney Farnsworth

Hardcover

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Overview

George Lukas and other leading filmmakers acknowledge their indebtedness to mythographic scholarship on archetypes. In his new study, author Rodney Farnsworth identifies a pattern of filmmakers' obsessions with archetypical rituals centered on sacrifice and the family in films made between 1977 and 1983, a period of political upheaval on both sides of the Atlantic. Combining a strong historical reading of the films in a sociopolitical context and utilizing Queer Theory as a framework for his arguments, Farnsworth offers a close examination of key films of the period, including works by Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, and Francis Ford Coppola, and provides a fascinating and timely glimpse of an important political and cinematic time.

Marking the end of a more liberal era, the late seventies and early eighties witnessed the growth of reactionary conservative movements such as the New Religious Political Right. These were the years that gave birth to movies—from esoteric art-house pictures to blockbusters such as Star Wars—that seemed in many cases to be adaptations of primordial mythology, subverting liberal-to-moderate views into reactionary depictions of family life. Although filmmakers had turned to these myths to shape their works, Farnsworth observes, the unstable, volatile nature of the archetypes deconstructed their best social intentions into something rich, strange, and deadly. This thought-provoking work will be of interest to students of social history as well as film studies.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780275974817
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 10/30/2001
Pages: 176
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

RODNEY FARNSWORTH is Associate Professor of English at Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, where he teaches classes in film, literature, humanities, fine arts, and the history of rhetoric. He has published extensively in journals including Film Quarterly, Literature/Film Quarterly, Musical Quarterly, and Rhetoric Review.

Table of Contents

Introduction: On Method and Matter
The Great Parent
Lineage, Abode, and Land
Regeneration and the Generations
Rituals of Life and Death
Conclusion: The Recalcitrant and Deconstructing Archetypes
Bibliography
Index

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