Ovid's Myth of Pygmalion on Screen
eBook - PDF

Ovid's Myth of Pygmalion on Screen

In Pursuit of the Perfect Woman

  1. 248 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Ovid's Myth of Pygmalion on Screen

In Pursuit of the Perfect Woman

Book details
Table of contents
Citations

About This Book

Why has the myth of Pygmalion and his ivory statue proved so inspirational for writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, and directors and creators of films and television series? The 'authorised' version of the story appears in the epic poem of transformations, Metamorphoses, by the first-century CE Latin poet Ovid; in which the bard Orpheus narrates the legend of the sculptor king of Cyprus whose beautiful carved woman was brought to life by the goddess Venus.
Focusing on screen storylines with a Pygmalion subtext, from silent cinema to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lars and the Real Girl, this book looks at why and how the made-over or manufactured woman has survived through the centuries and what we can learn about this problematic model of 'perfection' from the perspective of the past and the present. Given the myriad representations of Ovid's myth, can we really make a modern text a tool of interpretation for an ancient poem? This book answers with a resounding 'yes' and explains why it is so important to give antiquity back its future.

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Yes, you can access Ovid's Myth of Pygmalion on Screen by Paula James in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Ancient History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Continuum
Year
2011
ISBN
9781441168504
Edition
1
Topic
History
Subtopic
Ancient History
Index
History

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-title
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. Introduction
  9. Chapter 1 Ovid’s Rich Text: Layers of Identity in the Pygmalion Myth
  10. Chapter 2 Tragic Transformations: Making and Breaking the Statue on Screen
  11. Chapter 3 Romancing the Stone: the Made- Over Woman as Comedy
  12. Chapter 4 She Was Venus All Along: the Statue as Screen Goddess
  13. Chapter 5 Pygmalion’s Robots: the Horror and the Humour
  14. Chapter 6 Bathos and Pathos: a Simulacrum among Simulacra
  15. Chapter 7 Virtually Perfect: Hi and Lo Tech Gals of the Computer Age
  16. Chapter 8 More Myth Making at the Movies
  17. Appendix: Ovid’s Pygmalion
  18. Notes
  19. Bibliography
  20. Filmography
  21. Index