The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s PDF
Preview The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s
The New Peplum This page intentionally left blank The New Peplum Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s Edited by N D icholas iak Foreword by DaviD R. cooN Afterword by sTeveN l. seaRs McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-6762-1 ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3150-9 libRaRyofcoNgResscaTaloguiNgDaTaaReavailable bRiTishlibRaRycaTaloguiNgDaTaaReavailable © 2018 Nicholas Diak. all rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. front cover: scene from Hercules, 2014, shown from le:aksel hennie, ingrid bolso berdal, Dwayne Johnson (as hercules), Reece Ritchie, Rufus sewell (Paramount Pictures/MgM/Photofest) Printed in the united states of america McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com ToMithrasandtheunconquerablesun acknowledgments first and foremost, i must express gratitude to Michele brittany, my partner who has been the biggest supporter for all my projects. This is my first edited collection i’ve spearheaded, and her encouragement and advice through the process have been crucial for its success. My best friends adam and alan handford, parents stan and Tina Wrona, aunt Rose and grandpa Joseph have all been encouraging as well. i’d like to recognize the professors and other academics who have men- tored or inspired me over the years: Rob Weiner (Texas Tech university), David coon (university of Washington), the late Philip heldrich (university of Washington), and James barnard (arizona state university). appreciation and thanks are due to barbra and bryant Dillon, sage Weatherford, alex Wieser and elliott hewitt, who all have given me writing opportunities and outlets to keep honing my craft. i appreciate the support and encouragement from adam crowley and Jule schlag (my colleagues from the h.P. lovecast Podcast), the los angeles chapter of the horror Writers association, and Jacob garner, a colleague from the southwest Popular/american culture association. i would like to pay homage to christian Ryder, lisa Duse, Robert Payne cabeen, beth cato, shaena stabler, Madison brunoehler, Nicholas Tesluk and gary Myers. These folks are my role models, and i strive to be as accom- plished as they. finally, but most important, appreciation must be given to the essayists in this book. Their wisdom and insight is inked on these pages. They are all amazing scholars and academics, and their endeavors here demonstrate this. vi Table of contents Acknowledgments vi Foreword DaviD R. cooN 1 Introduction Nicholas Diak 4 Part One: Crossing the Rubicon: Expanding the Neo- Peplum Boundaries adapting to New spaces: swords and Planets and the Neo- Peplum Paul JohNsoN 21 hercules: Transmedia superhero Mythology DJoyMi bakeR 44 from crowds to swarms: Movement and bodies in Neo- Peplum films keviN M. flaNagaN 63 Part Two: Wisdom from the Gods: Mythological Adaptations There are No boundaries for our boats: Vikings and the Westernization of the Norse saga sTeve Nash 79 sounds of swords and sandals: Music in Neo- Peplum bbc Television Docudramas Nick Poulakis 95 vii viii Table of Contents hercules, Xena and genre: The Methodology behind the Mashup valeRie esTelle fRaNkel 115 Part Three: The “Glory” of Rome: Depictions of the Empire Male Nudity, violence and the Disruption of voyeuristic Pleasure in starz’s Spartacus haNNah MuelleR 135 sex, lies and Denarii: Roman Depravity and oppression in starz’s Spartacus JeRRy b. PieRce 155 in the green Zone with the Ninth legion: The Post- iraq Roman film keviN J. WeTMoRe, JR. 178 Part Four: Sculpted in Marble: Gender and Representation laughing at the body: The imitation of Masculinity in Peplum Parody films TaTiaNa PRoRokova 195 Queering the Quest: Neo- Peplum and the Neo- femme in Xena: Warrior Princess hayDee sMiTh 208 Afterword sTeveN l. seaRs 219 About the Contributors 223 Index 225 foreword DaviD R. cooN Popular culture is often dismissed as disposable entertainment that does not merit serious attention. as a scholar and teacher of popular media and culture, i often get questions and comments like “Why would you study that?” or “Well, that sounds like a lot of fun!” Don’t get me wrong—i do think study- ing popular culture is fun, but there is much more to it. as stuart hall, angela McRobbie, John fiske, and many others associated with and influenced by the british cultural studies movement have demonstrated, popular culture is not something that should be dismissed or written off as inconsequential, because it has the power to reinforce, question, or challenge the values and ideals of the society that produces and consumes it. Working from the belief that textual meanings are not fixed, scholars generally view popular culture as a site of struggle, where creators and consumers negotiate the meanings of individual texts as well as the broader values they represent. This book engages with those negotiations by exploring a set of popular culture texts identified as neo- peplums—recent films and television programs typically set in greek, Roman, or biblical antiquity and featuring gladiators, mytho- logical monsters, and heroic quests. The selected texts often contain epic bat- tles and other physical manifestations of struggle, but the essays collected in this book highlight the ideological struggles over ideas and meanings that exist at the heart of these stories. films and series that fall into the neo- peplum category are situated at an interesting set of intersections, which makes them particularly rich texts for analysis. for example, they represent the intersection of high and low culture. The stories, after all, are frequently drawn from the history and mythology of ancient greek, Roman, and Norse civilizations. These stories have previously been adapted in literary and visual art forms, collected in libraries and museums, taken up as objects of study and canonized by scholars and critics in classics departments, as well as programs in literature, art, and 1
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