bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction
Authors: Yaniv Bracha
Published: February 2021

This chapter gives an overview of installed arks and synagogues that still existed at the beginning of the twentieth century but were destroyed in the two world wars. It mentions surviving ark doors of synagogues that are now kept as museum items, which are considered silent witnesses to the rich tradition that was once part of Jewish life. It also reviews photographs of the arks that were taken before the Second World War and a few pre-war academic works and publications that were written mainly by architects and art historians, whose interest did not focus on Torah arks. The chapter refers to arks according to the name of their city or town of provenance, including their wider geographical location and other relevant information. It describes unique visual presentation of motifs that were never seen on arks, which characterized the period between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.
The Architectural Structure of the Torah Ark
Authors: Yaniv Bracha
Published: February 2021

Abstract and Keywords to be supplied.
Messianic Expectations
Authors: Yaniv Bracha
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about how the Temple is manifested in the synagogue through indirect motifs. It reviews events with motifs represented on the Torah arks that will take place concurrently with the rebuilding of the Temple in the days of personal and national redemption or in messianic times. It also discusses the tradition that is based on early expressions of eschatological expectations, mainly in the Talmud and midrashic literature that emerged as a result of continual disappointment at the delayed redemption. The chapter looks at literary motifs referring to the times of the messiah that appear on arks, such as the leviathan and the ox that are expressions of personal redemption. It mentions Aaron's rod, the manna jar, and the jug of anointing oil that are traditionally believed to have been set aside in anticipation of the coming of the messiah.
‘Two Voices Heard in Castile’: Rachel and Mary Weep for Their Children in the Age of the Zohar
Authors: Koren Sharon
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about Jewish culture in Castile from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries and returns to two early mothers. It examines Rachel and Mary's lives and their respective transformations in Jewish mystical literature and Christian theology. The chapters examines the cultural transformations and metamorphosis of Rachel into a symbol of the Shekhinah as an attempt to cope with the particular cultural situation of exile within the dominant Christian culture of the time. It also explains how Rachel becomes the divine mother suffering for her children in exile. The chapter illustrates the theological transformation of Rachel that enabled Jews to respond to the Christian devotion to Mary on a cosmic scale in order to grapple with their exilic condition. It recounts stories of Rachel and Mary in the sacred texts of the Jewish and Christian faiths which have inspired devotees, religious scholars, and historians for thousands of years.
A Letter from Mrs Schenirer, May She Rest in Peace
Authors: Seidman Naomi
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents a letter from Sarah Schenirer which was sent during her illness on the occasion of the last siyum in the Bais Yaakov Seminary. The letter points out two dangers that await Jewish girls from Bais Yaakov schools. The first one is that receiving praise and adulation from people after a successful lecture can make someone proud, so that they start to believe that they are really something special, earning fame and glory by their own efforts. The other danger is exactly the opposite. Some people worry too much about whether they are really fulfilling their responsibilities that they fall into a depression. When someone worries about whether they have properly fulfilled their obligations, they must carry out an honest reckoning about whether they indeed have fulfilled them, and if they have, they should remind themselves of the passage about fear of God.
Foreword to the 1955 Edition
Authors: Seidman Naomi
Published: February 2021

IN REPRINTING The Collected Writings of Sarah Schenirer, may she rest in peace, it is impossible to forget all Mrs Schenirer’s close collaborators, who helped her create and develop the Bais Yaakov seminary in Kraków and the international Bais Yaakov movement in general. And while their deeds stand as a memorial to them, nevertheless let their names also be mentioned here, as a memory for all eternity....
Women and the Dialectic of Spirituality in Hasidism
Authors: Loewenthal Naftali
Published: February 2021

This chapter concerns the role of women in Hasidism and in Habad, which is considered pivotal in terms of the relation of Hasidism to modernity. It discusses how Hasidism is openly premodern with its rigorous modesty rules and other strictures that limit female public participation in religious life. It also outlines modernistic elements that recognize and empower womanhood. The chapter focuses on Ada Rapoport-Albert's famous article in 1988 entitled On Women in Hasidism: S. A. Horodecky and the Maid of Ludmir Tradition, which debunked the significance of the Maid of Ludmir as a female rebbe and Horodecky's belief that 'the woman was given complete equality in the hasidic movement'. It presents the idea of a dialectic of spirituality in Hasidism.
Introduction
Authors: Guesnet François , Lupovitch Howard , Polonsky Antony
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates the similarities and differences between the Jewish experience in Poland and Hungary in the last two centuries. It looks at the extract from a letter from Aleksander Kraushar, one of the leading exponents of Jewish integration in the Kingdom of Poland, to the Polish novelist Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, who had reproached the Jewish supporters of the integration in the aftermath of the failed insurrection of 1863. It also examines Kraushar's letter as an extended discussion of the problems facing acculturated Jews in the face of the emergence of political antisemitism in the Kingdom of Poland. The chapter recounts the successful Jewish integration in Hungary. It mentions the identification with Magyardom that survived even the rejection of Jewish integration by a large proportion of Hungarian society in the interwar period.
Morality, Motherland, and Freedom
Authors: Raj Ferenc , lupovitch howard
Published: February 2021

ON SATURDAY, 12 May 1888, a rather simple funeral ceremony was conducted for Michael (Mihály) Heilprin ‘Russian Talmud student, teacher in Hungary, Hungarian patriot, American abolitionist, encyclopedist and practical and self-sacrificing philanthropist . . . perhaps the greatest Jew, from a purely intellectual point of view, that the country has seen’....
Gender and Scholarship in the Goldziher Household
Authors: Rac Katalin Franciska
Published: February 2021

THE DEDICATION in any academic book is an important tool in the hands of the author. It allows for an expression of gratitude to predecessors, colleagues, and family and friends for scholarly or other support and inspiration.1 The world-renowned orientalist Ignác (Ignaz) Goldziher (1850—1921) used this tool often. By dedicating his books to his mentors and colleagues, he paid due respect to fellow scholars and consequently defined the intellectual community with which he identified. His last monograph, ...
Abnormal Times
Authors: Gioielli Emily
Published: February 2021

THE END of the First World War in eastern Europe could hardly be said to have inaugurated a period of peace. Marked by revolutions, counter-revolutions, renewed foreign warfare, and military occupations, the early post-armistice state-building processes were violent affairs, as political factions wrestled for dominance over their political, ethnic, and religious enemies, and armies battled for territory. This extended period of conflict and violence in the region could be described as the ‘long First World War’. The conflicts that shaped it traced their short-term roots to the preceding years of open warfare and the revolutions that occurred in the wake of the defeat of the Central Powers....
Suicides of the Polish and Hungarian Types
Authors: Rosenthal Daniel
Published: February 2021

EUROPE suffered from an increase in the number of people seeking to take their own lives during the period between the wars. The chaos and horror of the First World War, the crushing economic hardships that plagued much of the continent throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and new social mores in the liberal atmosphere of the post-war years led to disillusionment, dislocation, and extreme despair. The fact that more people were living longer to crowd into the same urban areas only served to create more malaise and anomie in general. Poisons and firearms were more readily accessible than ever before, and the ubiquity of multi-storey dwellings in larger cities meant that jumping was now also an option for those considering suicide....
‘Nicht vor dem Kind!’
Authors: Jones Gwen
Published: February 2021

19 March [1944] was a Sunday, which is why we would have gone for a walk. The next day, my mother took me over to see Dr Halmi at the Hungarian-Italian Bank, where my father also worked. . . . I don’t remember exactly what they discussed, but they did talk about the danger facing us. As a result of this conversation, it wasn’t initially the feeling of humiliation that implanted itself in my conscience, but just the opposite: this conversation put an end to the humiliating feeling that my parents didn’t take me seriously or discuss the most important issues with me. Until that point I knew, and had to know, that we were facing certain dangers. If from nowhere else, then from the arguments between my mother and Aunt Jolán. And there were lots of other signs earlier on too, except I don’t remember them. It seems that all too often, I heard: ...
Historical Precedents and Contexts
Authors: Rapoport-Albert Ada
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the rabbinic traditions that were inherited from four women who were called by the title of prophetess: Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and Noadiah. It discusses how the Bible recognizes the phenomenon of the prophetess without pondering its validity and how rabbinic literature views it as problematic. It also explores the status of the Bible's prophetesses that conflicts with the Sages' fundamental exclusion of women from public activity and from positions of ritual, spiritual, or scholarly leadership. The chapter describes the classical rabbinic sources that increased with the number of biblical prophetesses known by name and who were acknowledged by the authenticity of their prophetic powers. It explains how prophetesses tend to deprecate their character by means of an exegesis that cast aspersions on their moral integrity or put them in the shadow of their husbands.
It’s Kosher to be Orthodox in America
Authors: Waxman Chaim I.
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines works on American Jewry written during the 1950s and 1960s that begin with the contrast between the pessimistic evaluations of the state of American Judaism at the end of the nineteenth century. It notes the starker contrast made between the state of American Orthodox Jewry at the time of the Second World War and at the start of the twenty-first century. It also considers Jeffrey Gurock's detailed analysis that demonstrates the first half of the twentieth century as the era of non-observance for American Orthodoxy. The chapter recounts how English-speaking Orthodox rabbinate had suffered somewhat of a reversal and was forced to take stock of its future by the 1940s. It points out the most traditional and Jewishly educated members of east European Orthodox Jewry and rabbinic intellectual elite that were most resistant to migration to the United States.
Tensions within Modern Orthodoxy
Authors: Waxman Chaim I.
Published: February 2021

This chapter considers developments indicating significant ritualistic departure not only from ultra-Orthodox norms and values but from what had been traditional Jewish religious behaviour since the last half-century. It examines both organizational and institutional developments and informal sources on the Modern Orthodox sector as a significant component of American Orthodoxy. It also refers to the role of women as the most discussed and pressing concerns for many Modern Orthodox Jews. The chapter looks at the increasing numbers of modern Jewish women who feel that they have a very limited or no place in the Orthodox synagogue or the organized community. It points out the variety of attempts that have been made to expand the educational opportunities available to Orthodox women and give them a greater role in synagogue life since the 1960s.
Conclusion
Authors: Waxman Chaim I.
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes American Orthodoxy as a product of the east European immigration to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It explains how American Orthodoxy was followed by the Holocaust-era immigration, deep ties with Israel, and adaptation to American society and culture. It also analyses religious behaviour that is widely viewed as halakhah within the realm of minhagim, such as Haym Soloveitchik. The chapter mentions how Religious Jewish women adopted increased and heightened kashrut practice that eventually became the norm. It talks about Menachem Elon, who indicated that international travel has introduced fresh customs and ideas to America's Jewish community, particularly from eastern Europe after the Second World War and Israel in the recent years.
Going Online to go ‘Home’: Yizkor Books, Cyber-Shtetls, and Communities of Location
Authors: Jablon Rachel Leah
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on online yizkor and Cyber-Shtetls that give access to the places where Jewish life once flourished and are otherwise inaccessible due to the Holocaust. It discusses how communities of the online yizkor and Cyber-Shtetls draw attention to changes in contemporary Jewish identity formation and the mediation of Jewish social connection in the digital age. It also explores how online yizkor books and Cyber-Shtetls that give people who are searching for 'home' a place to go and provide space that they occupy on the web as a surrogate for the real thing. The chapter mentions Benedict Anderson, who argues that the metropolitan daily newspaper represents a convergence of market capitalism and print technology that emerged at the start of the Industrial Revolution. It discloses the resulting 'communities of location' that are salient in Jewish life and culture that the Yiddish described the people who come from one geographic place as landsman.
Rethinking Jewishness in Networked Publics: The Case of Post-Communist Hungary
Authors: Manchin Anna
Published: February 2021

This chapter cites scholars that viewed the fall of communism in 1989 as a potential turning point for east European Jewish communities. It explains how political freedom promised new possibilities for organizing religious and secular Jewish life and for representing individual Jewish identities and communities. It also describes what form political change could take that will lead to a new flourishing of Jewish religion and culture. The chapter talks about Hungary's Hungarian-born Jewish population in Budapest that represents the largest community in any central European city and was thought to hold great potential for community building. It discusses how Jews were partaking in new manifestations of cultural ethnicity, such as an interest in Jewish history.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and the Mystification of Maimonidean Rationalism
Authors: Diamond James A.
Published: February 2021

This chapter points out how modern Jewish thinkers looked back and engaged a foundational Jewish canon of scriptural and rabbinic texts when they staked out their own novel ground and advanced Jewish thought in the twentieth century. It mentions the intellectual and jurisprudential legacy of Maimonides as a major part of the development of Jewish law and thought. It also focuses on Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, who embodies modern Jewish authenticity in the twentieth century. The chapter discusses Jewish intellectual, literary, and activist currents that intersected Rabbi Kook. It explores Rabbi Kook's passionate spiritual and political advocacy of Zionism, and his rabbinic leadership of pre-state Jaffa. It describes how Rabbi Kook was constantly driven by an irrepressible urge to disclose his most intimate reflections, no matter what the consequences might be.
Each Generation and Its Maimonides: The Maimonides of Rabbi Aharon Kotler
Authors: Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the way in which Rabbi Aharon Kotler presented Maimonides' thought. It discusses how Rabbi Kotler played a crucial role in the shaping of the haredi world view in the twentieth century. It also mentions the different elements of Orthodox Judaism that have endorsed Maimonides as an authority granting legitimacy on each generation and commentator. The chapter describes the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Leibowitzer Rebbe who considered themselves Maimonides' contemporary spokesmen. It looks at the dovish Meimad movement in Israeli politics that adopted Rabbi Kotler and their hawkish religious-Zionist opponents, while a pale kabbalistic hue colours the Maimonides of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
ΙΚΕΤΙΔΕΣ‎
Authors: Bowen A. J.
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides the original text and translation of Aeschylus' play the Suppliant Women. It describes the beginning of the play with a procession of girls that are accompanied by an older man who is soon named as Danaus, their father. It also talks about how the girls, who were fugitives from Egypt, were brought by sea by Danaus to seek sanctuary in Argos, the homeland of a distant ancestress named Io. The chapter looks at the rhythm changes to the lyric metres of the Suppliant Women, which promise to tell the whole tale of how the daughters' of Danaus side-tracked into self-pity and then into pondering the inscrutability of Zeus. It recounts the scene of how the girls become more and more disturbed at the prospect of being married and start to repeat in ephymnia their more frantic protests.
Commentary
Authors: Bowen A. J.
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides the commentary for Aeschylus' play the Suppliant Women. It explains the major musical and metrical shifts of the play that gave an instant understanding of the play's formal progress. It also compares the Suppliant Women with the prologues of the three plays of Oresteia, Persae, and a few other plays that do not begin with iambic trimeters. The chapter looks at the anapaestic opening that used to be part of the argument about the Suppliant Women being an early play. It discusses the plight of the Danaids as the play's main theme and assesses how it contains the vital facts by which the audience can identify the place and myth of the play and its immediate speakers.
Wearing Text
Authors: Pollard Claire
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the act of wearing text. It considers how the author teaches the relationship between the-media and collective identity through an experiment during which students reflect on their own media consumption. As 'wearing' and identity are inextricably linked — the act of dressing in the morning is a process of performance; a construction of an identity that one wants to project to the outside world — the author decided to use outfits or 'worn texts' as a way of tracing their identities in each other's textual fields to see how that identity is mediated. Put simply: the author's students would 'read' an outfit or 'worn text' constructed by her and explore its representation in texts with which they were familiar and vice versa. The outcome would allow them to compare how they see their own identities with how others, as a result of their textual influences, read their identities, and ultimately it would help them to understand the effect the-media can have on their identity.
Performing Text
Authors: Parsons Mark
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies the act of performing text. The concept of Performance is a core element of a number of different subjects including Media Studies, Drama, and English Literature. The chapter takes aspects of these varying but intrinsically linked subjects into this hypothetical post-Media Studies learning environment and explains how the author would teach this concept as a contemporary understanding, utilising approaches from each subject. This will be pedagogically similar to the recently introduced Teaching by Phenomena method in Finland where instead of focusing on particular subjects, learning is developed through certain topics and concepts, with Geography, History, Economics, and Foreign Languages being covered in the study of the European Union. Media Studies is regarded as a populist subject as the students tend to find it accessible due to having some familiarity of the texts they study; this is an opportunity to develop a course of learning for the students rather than the teachers.
After the Subject: Towards a Real Reform
Authors: Bennett Pete
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at the design principles of the reforms of GCSE and A level, which have sought to reduce the number of subjects offered by outlawing 'overlap' between subjects, in other words the very interdisciplinarity that this book is seeking to inspire and support. In England now, with the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and 'new' A levels defined by content rather than concepts, the book's arguments suddenly find themselves fighting 'hand-to-hand' with government policy. These reactionary outbursts represent a rejection of pretty much all of the philosophical movements of the last fifty years, ironically there is a darkly quirky postmodernism in the conception of these 'reforms'. Ultimately, this book encourages more radical thinking about Media Studies and 'Critical Studies'. The chapter then considers the importance of going back to reading not only as a basic skill or an educational tool but as 'only one aspect of consumption, but a fundamental one'.
Cobb’s ‘Emotional Journey’: From Guilt to Redemption
Authors: Carter David
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates the development of Cobb's character in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010). It reveals how Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) progresses from a haunted, guilt-ridden man through the major part of the film to becoming a man who has come to terms with what he has done and who has redeemed himself morally. The first hint that there is some unresolved emotional conflict in Cobb's mind comes with the first appearance of Mal. The audience later learns that she is an image created from his own unconscious, and by their nature such images, being inaccessible to conscious control, should be treated with suspicion. One can guess that some kind of guilt complex is causing Cobb to project this image of Mal. At the end of the film, Cobb has finally worked through and overcome his guilt, rid himself of his obsession with Mal, by recognising her as a shade, a poor imitation. The final ambiguous image in the film of the spinning top and Cobb's reunion with his children can be interpreted as implying that maybe it does not matter whether the scene is real or not. As Cobb realised and tried to convince Mal: it is the reality of the experience which is important.
Introduction: ‘The UFOs Are Coming!’
Authors: Towlson Jon
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Close Encounters is a UFO movie that arose from a resurgence of ufology in the 1970s, which coincided with the growth of New Age movements, mysticism, alien-abduction cults, and an increasing belief in conspiracy theories. The film speaks to Utopianism, the belief within international relations theory that war can be eliminated either by perfecting man or by perfecting government. Utopianism is, of course, a key concept in science fiction. The chapter then looks at Jack Kroll's review of Close Encounters, which demonstrates how so many of the political criticisms surrounding the film stem from the time of its initial reception, and how its cultural denotation as ‘transcendent’ science fiction was immediately recognised and accepted by some — but not all — critics. The chapter also details the synopsis of the film.
Introduction: Reading (into) the Greatest Science Fiction Film Ever Made
Authors: Redmond Sean
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner that has become one of the most lauded science-fiction films ever made. It talks about academics who have written about Blade Runner in terms of its racial and sexual politics, its exploration of humanity, and of the way it challenges many of the accepted or expected codes and conventions of the science-fiction film. It also examines how Blade Runner is considered by the British Film Institute to be a 'Modern Classic' and is often one of the most written about films when it comes to science-fiction readers. The chapter analyses how Blade Runner is often used as the seminal text with which to explore the poetics and politics of the science-fiction genre. It mentions Blade Runner as one of the biggest commercial failures of the summer of 1982 for bringing in less than half the cost of its production.
Narrative
Authors: Redmond Sean
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the narrative of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in terms of the way it functions, like the anti-narrative film found in a great deal of European art cinema. It discusses German Expressionism as the reference point for Blade Runner. It also analyses the dislocated and open-ended nature of Blade Runner's narrative that suggests a challenging art aesthetic that was borrowed from film movements, such as the French New Wave. The chapter explores Blade Runner's narrative, which is marked by gaps and enigmas that are never fully cohered or resolved. It addresses arguments made about contemporary science fiction that is predominately driven by a desire to be always visually spectacular.
Representation
Authors: Redmond Sean
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about representation, which is a concept given to the way things, objects, places, people come to have meaning in the social world. It mentions the clear and direct sense on the growth of technology in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which has resulted in a future where nature and the natural has been nearly entirely snuffed out. It also cites Michael Ryan and Douglas Kellner, who argue that from a conservative perspective, technology represents artifice as opposed to nature and the mechanical as opposed to the spontaneous. The chapter examines how the Blade Runner complicates the relationship between technology and nature and collapses the binary opposition between them. It demonstrates how technology is being validated or authenticated or at least humanised or naturalised in Blade Runner.
Institutions and Authors
Authors: Redmond Sean
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses Ridley Scott's Blade Runner as a textbook case of how the contemporary Hollywood studio system works or rather fails to work properly. It explores Blade Runner as a case study of budgetary problems, falling outs, rows on the shoot, sneak screenings, sackings, final cuts, and director's cuts. It also analyzes how Blade Runner's commercials are privileged over all other artistic and professional considerations where filmmaking is concerned. The chapter mentions The Deer Hunterproducer Michael Deeley, who offered the Blade Runner project to Scott. It recounts how Scott officially signed on to make the Blade Runner on 21 February 1980.
Nation and Location in Cannibal Holocaust
Authors: Waddell Calum
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the production of Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust in Leticia, a small city of the Amazonas, during the time when the country was experiencing considerable political unrest. It describes the Colombian government that was headed by the liberal Julio César Turbay Ayala, who was engulfed in a battle to collapse guerrilla activity in his country. It also looks at the Italian cannibal genre's use of postcolonial symbolism that ground some of the influences that typify the aesthetic and thematic elements of Deodato's production. This chapter analyzes the Italian cannibal film's presentation of nation and location that is distinct in its onscreen geographical and political manipulation. It reviews the critics of Cannibal Holocaust that suggested that it is a racist and fascist film.
Reality in Cannibal Holocaust
Authors: Waddell Calum
Published: February 2021

This chapter reviews how Ruggero Deodato'sCannibal Holocaust follows in the tradition of mondo and exotic cinema. It illustrates how Cannibal Holocaust presents the viewer with a purportedly genuine 'reality', such as unsimulated animal slaughter, actual locations, and newsreel atrocity footage. It also analyses the fictionalisation of location, native lifestyles, and historical images in Cannibal Holocaust. The chapter discusses the harrowing execution footage of Cannibal Holocaust's 'Last Road to Hell' sequence, which shows its vast use of visual misinformation. It looks at the misappropriation of third world horror that is attributed to a perceived postcolonial European 'superiority' in which all conflicts in developing nations are viewed as indicative of an exotic sense of anarchy.
Patriarchy in Cannibal Holocaust
Authors: Waddell Calum
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses how the female form in Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust is sexually punished. It describes the terrified women that are subjected to humiliation, degradation, rape, and slaughter throughout Deodato's film. It also looks into the concept of violent patriarchy in both the Western world and the developing world. The chapter compares and contrasts Alan Yates and his team's treatment of the film's central female character, Faye, with the actions of the cannibal tribes in Amazonia regarding women. It analyses Faye's isolated treatment, in which her humiliation is presented to indicate the domineering masculinity of Yates and his friends and the lack of influence a female voice has on their transgressions.
Polanski and Horror: Rosemary’s Baby
Authors: Owens Rebekah
Published: February 2021

This chapter considers Roman Polanski's approach to the genre and horror output before the film Macbeth. It discusses Polanski's 1965 work Repulsion, that centres around Carol Ledoux and her disintegrating sanity, which is expressed from her subjective viewpoint. It also mentions how Repulsion showed Polanski as a master of the craft of psychological horror. The chapter looks at the Gothic aspects of the horror genre that is recorded in Polanski's autobiography, where he wrote of his experiences watching horror films in Paris. It details how Polanski decided to make a horror film that was designed to make people laugh, rather than the unintentional merriment that Hammer horror had provoked.
Conclusion
Authors: Owens Rebekah
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about Polish critic Jan Kott's Shakespeare Our Contemporary of 1964, in which he noted that William Shakespeare's Histories are representing cycles of horror whereby a route to kingship is only through crimes. It points out how the cycle is inevitable to all people since everyone is trapped in a great machine, the engine of history. It also analyses Roman Polanski's Macbeth as a product of a disillusion with the 1960s countercultural idealism and the expression of a youthful anger at the collective lack of will for social change. The chapter looks at the concept of franchise, the twentieth-century phenomenon whereby a new-minted concept of the horror genre is continued in a series of sequels. It explores the ending of Macbeth and the promise it creates of an emotional resonance in the audience rather than just an intellectual one.
Waltz with Bashir: Why Does it Matter?
Authors: Miller Giulia
Published: February 2021

This chapter recounts the most horrific episodes in the history of the Middle East conflict. It talks about the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by members of the Islamist militant group Hamas, followed by a brutal revenge attack that triggered a fifty-day war between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza. It also analyses the function and value of films, such as Ari Folman's animated documentary Waltz with Bashir and examines the yawning gap between global consciousness of Israeli politics and that of Israeli culture. The chapter points out how Waltz with Bashir struck a chord on the international art house scene and became a roaring success, winning a Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film. It discusses the heart of why Waltz with Bashir was such a phenomenon and questions whether its is still as significant now as it was when it was first released in 2008.
Folk Horror
Authors: Scovell Adam
Published: February 2021

Interest in the ancient, the occult, and the “wyrd” is on the rise. The furrows of Robin Hardy (The Wicker Man), Piers Haggard (Blood on Satan's Claw), and Michael Reeves (Witchfinder General) have arisen again, most notably in the films of Ben Wheatley (Kill List), as has The Spirit of Dark of Lonely Water, Juganets, cursed Saxon crowns, spaceships hidden under ancient barrows, owls and flowers, time-warping stone circles, wicker men, the goat of Mendes, and malicious stone tapes. This book charts the summoning of these esoteric arts within the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond, using theories of psychogeography, hauntology, and topography to delve into the genre's output in film, television, and multimedia as its “sacred demon of ungovernableness” rises yet again in the twenty-first century.
Neo-fascist Corporate Bodies
Authors: Ahmed Omar
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines what the treatment of OCP, the fictional mega-corporation in RoboCop (1987), closely linked to fascism, that wields such power and control over the public and private reveals about the way science fiction has represented this ideological development over the years. It explores the physical effects of the corporation on the individual body, its commodification, dehumanisation, and namely Murphy's transformation into a fascistic product. At the same time, just how far does the film go with its critique of the corporation? As it is often suggested, the ending of RoboCop manifests an ideological lapse that contradicts the rest of the film's corrosive enquiry of corporate power. RoboCop also arrived at a critical juncture in American cinema, at the height of Reaganomics, and is a work that belongs to a cycle of anti-corporate films that used the science-fiction repertoire as a vehicle for contemporaneous anxieties.
Conclusion
Authors: Hayes Marisa C.
Published: February 2021

This concluding chapter highlights how, despite the mixed critical reception it received outside Japan initially, Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) went on to become a founding pillar of the contemporary J-horror movement as both a successful domestic product and a popular international export. Alongside the Ringu films, it inspired new explorations of haunted technology and cyclical violence, while establishing a familiar look for the female Japanese ghost that international audiences would come to recognise instantly. Indeed, the characters of Kayako and Toshio would also become horror icons in their own right. At the turn of the millennium, Takashi Shimizu offered audiences a lasting glimpse of psychological hauntings, old as time yet packaged in the form of contemporary troubles and very real household devices. Although aided by Japan's lore of the supernatural and the country's rich array of performing arts, it is Shimizu's mastery of sound and virtuosic camera movements that creates an architectural odyssey within the horrors of the home and other intimate spaces.
‘A She-Wolf Came…’
Authors: Gracey James
Published: February 2021

This chapter explains how werewolves have traditionally been a masculinised beast associated with cultural concepts of masculinity. It explores Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves as an atypical werewolf film that uses the figure of the lycanthrope to explore notions of adult sexuality from a distinctly feminine vantage point. It also mentions Angela Carter, who described The Company of Wolves as a menstrual film in which the wolves stand for the girl's own sexuality, rather than rough, hairy male sexuality. The chapter discusses female werewolves that have been used as the vehicle to discuss various 'human' anxieties for many centuries. It looks at Rosaleen's encounter and seduction of the huntsman as a significant and influential moment in the history of horror cinema that challenges the traditional representation of the werewolf that is inherently masculine.
‘I’ll hurt you if you stay.’ The Fly scene-by-scene: Act Two
Authors: Westwood Emma
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the scenes of Act Two of David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986). In Act Two, Seth Brundle makes the transition from amiable and reclusive scientist to predatory and misogynistic Brundlefly — a seamless character transition that creeps up on the audience through Cronenberg's screenplay and direction, and Jeff Goldblum's subtle yet defined performance. As the Brundlefly persona comes to the fore, the audience still sympathises with the overtly animalistic, egregious person he has become. They know this is not the real Seth; it is the corruption of Seth at a cellular level. Cronenberg's patented brand of body horror is coming into its own right here with Seth finally admitting to himself that something is wrong. He questions whether he is dying, and if this is what dying is like, which directly references Cronenberg's own explanation of the film: that it is an allegory for our mortality as human beings and the natural processes that lead to old age and death. It is by way of the computer that he discovers his DNA has fused with a fly — the vital ‘reveal’ — in a cinematic moment common to many great science-fiction films where pivotal information of emotional resonance is not communicated between human beings but between human and machine.
‘Insects don’t have politics.’ The Fly scene-by-scene: Act Three
Authors: Westwood Emma
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the scenes of Act Three of David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986). When Veronica arrives at the warehouse, the degeneration of Seth is apparent: Seth walks on sticks like an old man whose hips and knees have given out; his skin has deteriorated further, his hair is stringy, and his clothing dirty and streaked with that milky ooze. Brundlefly's instincts are now his own, and he does not even realise he is displaying them. Despite the gravity of Seth's situation, he remains true to his human character and never stops being a scientist. The chapter then looks at the deleted scenes, which indicate Cronenberg's initial vision for The Fly was even grimmer and more violent than the version that made it to cinemas — something likely to have undercut the love story and Seth Brundle's affability. The Fly ends with the mercy death of Brundlefly at the hand of his lover; a faultless conclusion for a film that eschews unnecessary embellishment so as not to detract from the strength of its story.
Kubrick and Horror
Authors: Mee Laura
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses Stanley Kubrick's relationship with the horror genre. The Shining (1980) is a clear example of Kubrick's status as ‘an artist of complex and popular work’—rather than being exclusively one or the other. Many approaches to understanding the film see it as a ‘serious’ work by a master filmmaker operating without commercial imperative, or elevated above a disreputable genre. This overlooks a number of important contextual considerations, not least the fact that Kubrick had been clear in asserting that he wanted to make a supernatural film and liked a number of horror films. Moreover, Kubrick, whose films ‘repeatedly mix the grotesque and the banal, the conventions of Gothic confessional morbidity and the self-conscious involutions of modernist parody’, was ideally placed to make a horror film. If The Shining is in many ways typical of the Kubrickian style, then it surely follows that the Kubrickian style was ideal for horror. His auteurist style—the use of black comedy, his artistic approach to mise-en-scène and cinematography, an interest in the uncanny—all lend themselves to the genre.
Landscape, Seascape, Manscape
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the location and the first scenes of Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963). The Damned was Losey's first feature film in CinemaScope, though not, as most sources claim, his debut with the format; his short for Hammer, A Man on the Beach (1955), was shot in CinemaScope. Perhaps this previous experience gave Losey the confidence to take such full advantage of the possibilities offered by this ratio in the opening sequence. Losey chose Weymouth and Portland Bill as the locations partly because of his love of the Dorset of Thomas Hardy and John Cowper Powys. He referred to Portland Bill in an interview as 'a place where the British were developing germ warfare and also undersea warfare' — not quite accurate, as others have pointed out.
Candyman and the Return of the Repressed
Authors: Towlson Jon
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents a textual analysis of Candyman (1992). The film at first appears to be a product of white liberal guilt at the plight of poor African-Americans; Helen Lyle lives in an expensive apartment originally built as another part of the projects but later sold by the housing authority as a going concern and turned into designer condos. Likewise, Helen is seen working on her research at the University, while black menial workers toil as cleaners in the background well aware of the legend of the Candyman. However, Bernard Rose consciously invokes American history and the oppression of ethnic minorities in his backstory for Tony Todd's Candyman character: the origin of the Candyman is based on a public lynching and plays on the fear of retribution for the historical ill-treatment of African-Americans. Candyman/Daniel Robitaille was the son of a slave, a free man who came into money, schooled, and brought up in polite society. His crime was that of miscegenation: he fell in love with a white girl, whom he made pregnant; his punishment was a horrible death.
Sequels, Spin-offs and Knock-offs
Authors: Towlson Jon
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies the sequels to Candyman (1992), Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999), in terms of what they add to the Candyman mythos. Each attempts to deliver more of the same but arguably without the level of intelligence and skill that Bernard Rose brought to the original. Bill Condon's Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh clarifies the origins of the Candyman, but also the miscegenation subtext of the first film is made more explicit. Released straight to DVD by Artisan Entertainment, Turi Meyer's Candyman: Day of the Dead is essentially a remake of the original film, with certain plot elements of Farewell to the Flesh thrown in to the mix. The chapter then considers the knock offs, looking at the various movies based on the legend of ‘Bloody Mary’, and the Urban Legend franchise, which includes the direct-to-DVD entry Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005). The continuing popularity of these films suggests that the urban myth and what it represents is still very much alive.
‘I Need Water!’
Authors: Grimm Joshua
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses how the best horror films say something about complicated gender politics, nationwide policy decisions, reaction to a significant event, or any issue that deserves more attention. It analyses the most straightforward interpretation of David Robert Mitchell'sIt Follows, focusing on the entity that represents the spectre of adulthood, one of looming responsibility and grounded dreams. The chapter explains the entity that takes the form of adults in It Follows and points out that only two parents' faces are clearly visible in the film. It assesses the parental absence in It Follows in order to create a world as only teens can see it.
Discovering Usher
Authors: van Leeuwen Evert Jan
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of House of Usher (1960), which was a part of American International Pictures' TV series The Curse of Corman. This TV series introduced American International's Poe pictures to a new generation. It is the emotional intensity conveyed through the mise-en-scène that sets the Poe pictures apart from their immediate rivals. The Poe pictures appealed to AIP's target audience — teenagers — because their aesthetics were also akin to the look and feel of EC horror comics. More than any of the other Poe pictures, House of Usher is a work of pulp expressionism that appeals to the angst holed up inside the minds of many a teenage audience member. Like a magic lantern, the film projector reveals a series of beautifully crafted, colourful tableau that in sequence give expression to Edgar Allan Poe's vision of human frailty and corruption, and the void that awaits beyond the threshold of life. This book explains why House of Usher has attracted a cult audience for nearly 60 years.
The Seeds of Usher: Of Death and the Muse
Authors: van Leeuwen Evert Jan
Published: February 2021

This chapter juxtaposes Edgar Allan Poe's and Roger Corman's artistic theory and artistic method to shine a light on the creative synergy of their collaboration. Poe and Corman are existential artists, fascinated by the theme of death not as a source of outright horror — to shock an audience with graphic portrayals of murder and mayhem — but as a trope through which to explore questions concerning the meaning and purpose of individual as well as collective human lives. Poe expressed this most succinctly in his poem ‘The Conqueror Worm’. That Corman also reflected on the meaning of human lives and the ethics of human thought and behaviour in his art becomes apparent by his inclusion of the voice of God in the opening sequence of Attack of the Crab Monsters (1956). While it may be tempting to call Poe a poor man's Percy Shelley and Corman a cheapskate Jack Arnold, the chapter considers them both producers of the thinking person's fantastic fiction.
American Jazz, Polish Rock
Authors: Skaff Sheila
Published: February 2021

This chapter considers the popular music used in Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida. It explores the link between American jazz music and Poland during the 1960s and the classical music that accompanies the most serious moments of Ida. It also reviews Pawlikowski's interviews, where he often mentioned how he was inspired by the Polish rock music of his childhood when creating Ida and how shooting the scene in Poland offered him a trip down memory lane. The chapter describes silence as the reigning aspect of sound in Ida, which dominates and drives the film and draws viewers' attention. It reveals the silence in Ida as a force, a confession, a way of life, and a demand all at once.
The Entire Mystery: Paratexts and the Ever-Expanding Twin Peaks Universe
Authors: Hallam Lindsay
Published: February 2021

This chapter explains how the Twin Peaks universe has expanded beyond the mediums of film and television and into the areas of literature and digital media, which inspired countless works of fan-made artwork and fiction. It reviews a brief survey of some of the key paratexts that interlock with David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which opens up new facets and insights into the film's narrative. It also mentions The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, which was written by Lynch's daughter Jennifer and published in October 1990 in between airing of the first and second seasons of the Twin Peaks series. The chapter details the The Secret Diary's initial release that reached number four on The New York Times bestseller list during the height of Twin Peaks mania. It explains book stands as a powerful testimony of the harmful and damaging effects of sexual abuse.