Ruth Hellier-Tinoco
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195340365
- eISBN:
- 9780199896998
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340365.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Dance
The book reveals how the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead of Lake Pátzcuaro act as icons of Mexico and Mexicanness. Covering a ninety-year period from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s ...
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The book reveals how the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead of Lake Pátzcuaro act as icons of Mexico and Mexicanness. Covering a ninety-year period from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day, and incorporating multifarious contexts in Mexico, the USA, and Europe, this study proposes a theory of performism as a frame for interpreting the processes at play as local dance, music, ritual practices, and locations are deployed as national and global spectacles and attractions. Wholly embedded in political, ideological, economic, and aesthetic particularities, this study is concerned with analyzing official constructions of indigenous/indigenousness and folklore/folklórico, focusing on the ideology of indigenismo and the P'urhépecha peoples. Central to the analyses are notions of shaping a collective gaze, authentication, embodiment, folkloricization, ideological refunctionalization, commodification, and commoditization. Key to understanding these cultural constructions are issues of centers and peripheries as this investigation moves between local lives and international politics. Drawing on extensive ethnographic, archival, and participatory experience this interdisciplinary study expands and enriches understanding of complex processes of creating national icons, cultural artifacts, tourist attractions, and representative dance repertoires, specifically engaged with the signifying power of the human body. The book shows how constructions of Mexicanness and Mexico are manifest in multiple theatricalized, musical, filmic, literary, and visual representations as found in an eclectic range of sources.Less
The book reveals how the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead of Lake Pátzcuaro act as icons of Mexico and Mexicanness. Covering a ninety-year period from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day, and incorporating multifarious contexts in Mexico, the USA, and Europe, this study proposes a theory of performism as a frame for interpreting the processes at play as local dance, music, ritual practices, and locations are deployed as national and global spectacles and attractions. Wholly embedded in political, ideological, economic, and aesthetic particularities, this study is concerned with analyzing official constructions of indigenous/indigenousness and folklore/folklórico, focusing on the ideology of indigenismo and the P'urhépecha peoples. Central to the analyses are notions of shaping a collective gaze, authentication, embodiment, folkloricization, ideological refunctionalization, commodification, and commoditization. Key to understanding these cultural constructions are issues of centers and peripheries as this investigation moves between local lives and international politics. Drawing on extensive ethnographic, archival, and participatory experience this interdisciplinary study expands and enriches understanding of complex processes of creating national icons, cultural artifacts, tourist attractions, and representative dance repertoires, specifically engaged with the signifying power of the human body. The book shows how constructions of Mexicanness and Mexico are manifest in multiple theatricalized, musical, filmic, literary, and visual representations as found in an eclectic range of sources.
Ruth Hellier-Tinoco
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195340365
- eISBN:
- 9780199896998
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340365.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Dance
This chapter introduces the central notion that Mexico and Mexicanness are constructs, shaped and performed through multiple modes for interfacing nationalist and tourist agendas. Establishing the ...
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This chapter introduces the central notion that Mexico and Mexicanness are constructs, shaped and performed through multiple modes for interfacing nationalist and tourist agendas. Establishing the focus on two specific practices, the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead, from islands on Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, discussion centers on ways in which both were appropriated for, and deployed as efficacious, iconic embodiments and referents of Mexico and Mexicanness from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day. Issues concerning designations of indigenousness and folklorico, and the ideological movement of indigenismo are introduced, particularly relating to the P'urhépecha peoples. The term performism is coined to frame the discussion, engaging with the broadest conceptual understandings of performance, performing, and performativity, with the aim of drawing attention to the multiple cohering and cumulative political, ideological, epistemological, and aesthetic ideas, processes, actions, and strategies.Less
This chapter introduces the central notion that Mexico and Mexicanness are constructs, shaped and performed through multiple modes for interfacing nationalist and tourist agendas. Establishing the focus on two specific practices, the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead, from islands on Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, discussion centers on ways in which both were appropriated for, and deployed as efficacious, iconic embodiments and referents of Mexico and Mexicanness from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day. Issues concerning designations of indigenousness and folklorico, and the ideological movement of indigenismo are introduced, particularly relating to the P'urhépecha peoples. The term performism is coined to frame the discussion, engaging with the broadest conceptual understandings of performance, performing, and performativity, with the aim of drawing attention to the multiple cohering and cumulative political, ideological, epistemological, and aesthetic ideas, processes, actions, and strategies.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0018
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses films inspired by internal conflicts in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, as divisions between young and old, black and white, and left and right became ...
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This chapter discusses films inspired by internal conflicts in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, as divisions between young and old, black and white, and left and right became increasingly polarised. This can be seen as the period of Hollywood modernism, in which a series of films and filmmakers displayed the influence of the international art cinema. It can also been seen as one in which Hollywood cinema incorporated other cinemas, containing their threat by absorbing that which was threatening. In political terms, this can also be seen as both an era of political radicalism in which a whole series of aspects of American culture and society were criticised and as one of conservatism in which there was an attack on the claims and gains made by the left. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Inner-City Exhibition and the Genre Film: Distributing Night of the Living Dead’ (1968) by Kevin Heffernan, which uses the film to open up a series of issues about distribution in the late 1960s.Less
This chapter discusses films inspired by internal conflicts in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, as divisions between young and old, black and white, and left and right became increasingly polarised. This can be seen as the period of Hollywood modernism, in which a series of films and filmmakers displayed the influence of the international art cinema. It can also been seen as one in which Hollywood cinema incorporated other cinemas, containing their threat by absorbing that which was threatening. In political terms, this can also be seen as both an era of political radicalism in which a whole series of aspects of American culture and society were criticised and as one of conservatism in which there was an attack on the claims and gains made by the left. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Inner-City Exhibition and the Genre Film: Distributing Night of the Living Dead’ (1968) by Kevin Heffernan, which uses the film to open up a series of issues about distribution in the late 1960s.
Tony Williams
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231173551
- eISBN:
- 9780231850759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173551.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines George A. Romero's traditions as a filmmaker. Romero was hailed as the director of Night of the Living Dead (1968), a film popularly associated with initiating the gore and ...
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This chapter examines George A. Romero's traditions as a filmmaker. Romero was hailed as the director of Night of the Living Dead (1968), a film popularly associated with initiating the gore and special effects syndrome affecting contemporary horror films such as Scream (1997) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1998). However, the name of George A. Romero really owes much to that relatively brief moment of independent commercial cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. The era saw the emergence of a renaissance in the American horror film characterized by significant works by directors Larry Cohen, Wes Craven, Brian De Palma and Tobe Hooper, which promised revitalization of the Hollywood film industry. This chapter considers literary naturalism and its association with Emile Zola's literary and theoretical explorations, along with the portrayal of zombies in cinema and how the methods used by human survivors in Romero's films differ from those within naturalistic novels. It also discusses Romero's comic book style, especially that relating to 1950s EC Comics.Less
This chapter examines George A. Romero's traditions as a filmmaker. Romero was hailed as the director of Night of the Living Dead (1968), a film popularly associated with initiating the gore and special effects syndrome affecting contemporary horror films such as Scream (1997) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1998). However, the name of George A. Romero really owes much to that relatively brief moment of independent commercial cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. The era saw the emergence of a renaissance in the American horror film characterized by significant works by directors Larry Cohen, Wes Craven, Brian De Palma and Tobe Hooper, which promised revitalization of the Hollywood film industry. This chapter considers literary naturalism and its association with Emile Zola's literary and theoretical explorations, along with the portrayal of zombies in cinema and how the methods used by human survivors in Romero's films differ from those within naturalistic novels. It also discusses Romero's comic book style, especially that relating to 1950s EC Comics.
John Marmysz
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474424561
- eISBN:
- 9781474438421
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474424561.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter scrutinizes the structure of George Romero’s Living Dead films in light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s distinction between passive and active nihilism. The films analysed include Night of the ...
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This chapter scrutinizes the structure of George Romero’s Living Dead films in light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s distinction between passive and active nihilism. The films analysed include Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. It is argued that in this series there is a progressively building ambiguity in Romero’s attitude toward the passive forces of the zombie invasion and the active efforts of the human survivors. Initially, Romero’s sympathy seems to be with the humans; especially with minorities, women and the disabled. Yet as the films progress, sympathy shifts toward the undead, who are increasingly depicted as targets of human cruelty and abuse. What begins as a nightmare of nihilistic passivity eventually ends with a nightmarish scenario of nihilistic activity, exposing the awful potential of human power unleashed from moral constraint.
Less
This chapter scrutinizes the structure of George Romero’s Living Dead films in light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s distinction between passive and active nihilism. The films analysed include Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. It is argued that in this series there is a progressively building ambiguity in Romero’s attitude toward the passive forces of the zombie invasion and the active efforts of the human survivors. Initially, Romero’s sympathy seems to be with the humans; especially with minorities, women and the disabled. Yet as the films progress, sympathy shifts toward the undead, who are increasingly depicted as targets of human cruelty and abuse. What begins as a nightmare of nihilistic passivity eventually ends with a nightmarish scenario of nihilistic activity, exposing the awful potential of human power unleashed from moral constraint.
Mathias Clasen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190666507
- eISBN:
- 9780190666545
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190666507.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) depicts the futile attempts of a group of people to survive a zombie outbreak by barricading themselves in a farm house. Romero’s film introduced ...
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George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) depicts the futile attempts of a group of people to survive a zombie outbreak by barricading themselves in a farm house. Romero’s film introduced the modern horror zombie, a reanimated, rotting corpse that feeds on the living, travels in hordes, and is contagious. This chapter argues that Romero’s implausible monster is highly effective because it triggers defensive adaptations in human evolutionary psychology, especially adaptations to predators and contagious substances. The zombie’s counterintuitive aspect, its undeath, makes it especially salient. Romero used the figure to probe human reactions to disaster and to paint a vivid picture of the inevitability of conflict and defeat, especially in terms of social, psychological, and organic breakdown. It resonated especially with disillusioned moviegoers at the time of its release, but the film’s monsters and themes continue to engage people because of their evolutionary salience.Less
George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) depicts the futile attempts of a group of people to survive a zombie outbreak by barricading themselves in a farm house. Romero’s film introduced the modern horror zombie, a reanimated, rotting corpse that feeds on the living, travels in hordes, and is contagious. This chapter argues that Romero’s implausible monster is highly effective because it triggers defensive adaptations in human evolutionary psychology, especially adaptations to predators and contagious substances. The zombie’s counterintuitive aspect, its undeath, makes it especially salient. Romero used the figure to probe human reactions to disaster and to paint a vivid picture of the inevitability of conflict and defeat, especially in terms of social, psychological, and organic breakdown. It resonated especially with disillusioned moviegoers at the time of its release, but the film’s monsters and themes continue to engage people because of their evolutionary salience.
Ray Zone
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136110
- eISBN:
- 9780813141183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136110.003.0031
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The first digital 3d horror films are analysed along with the technologies used to photograph and exhibit them. The suitability of horror films for 3D and the enduring appeal they perennially hold in ...
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The first digital 3d horror films are analysed along with the technologies used to photograph and exhibit them. The suitability of horror films for 3D and the enduring appeal they perennially hold in visual culture is discussed.Less
The first digital 3d horror films are analysed along with the technologies used to photograph and exhibit them. The suitability of horror films for 3D and the enduring appeal they perennially hold in visual culture is discussed.