ISBN-13: 9781441158710 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 224 str.
ISBN-13: 9781441158710 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 224 str.
For more than half a centurynow, scholars have debated over what comprises a 'genuinely' religious film--onethat evinces an 'authentic' manifestation of the sacred. Often these scholarsdo so by pitting the 'successful' films against those which propagate aninauthentic spiritual experience--with the biblical spectacular serving as theirmost notorious candidate.
This book argues that whatmakes a filmic manifestation of the sacred true or authentic may say moreabout a spectator or critic's particular way of knowing, as influenced byalphabetic literacy, than it does about the aesthetic or philosophical--andsometimes even faith-based--dimensions of the sacred onscreen. Engaging witheverything from Hollywood religious spectaculars, Hindu mythologicals, and aninternational array of films revered for their 'transcendental style, ' The Sacred and the Cinema unveils theepistemic pressures at the heart of engaging with the sacred onscreen. The bookalso provides a valuable summation of the history of the sacred as a field ofstudy, particularly as that field intersects with film.