The Epic Film in World Culture

Introduction Section 1: Spectacle Chapter 1: Monica Silveira Cyrino, "'This is Sparta!' The Reinvention of the Epic in Zach Snyder's 300." Chapter 2: Kirsten Thompson, "'Philip Never Saw Babylon:' 360 Degree Vision and the Historical Epic in the Digital Era." Chapter 3: Leon Hunt, "Heroic Chivalry, Heroic Sacrifice: 'Martial Arthouse' as Epic Cinema." Chapter 4: Robert Burgoyne, "Bare Life and Sovereignty in Gladiator." Section 2: Center and Periphery Chapter 5: Dina Iordanova, "'Rise of the Rest:' Globalizing Epic Cinema." Chapter 6: Bettina Bildhauer, "Signs of the Times: The Semiotics of Time and Event in Sirk's Sign of the Pagan." Chapter 7: Tom Conley, "The Fall of the Roman Empire: On Space and Allegory." Chapter 8: Mark Jancovich, "'An Italianmade Spectacle Film Dubbed in English:' Cultural Distinctions, National Cinema and the Critical Reception of the Postwar Historical Epic." Chapter 9: Ruby Cheung, "Red Cliff: The Chinese-Language Epic and Diasporic Chinese Spectators." Section 3: Remembering the Nation Chapter 10: Philip Wagner, "Passing Through Nightmares: Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman and the Epic Discourse in New Deal America." Chapter 11: Bruce Babington, "Epos Indigenized: The New Zealand Wars Film From Rudall Hayward to Vincent Ward." Section 4: The Family Epic Chapter 12: Bhaskar Sarkar, in "Epic Melodrama, or Cine-Maps of the Global South." Chapter 13: Anne Gselvik, "Black Blood: There Will Be Blood." Section 5: The Body in the Epic Chapter 14: Alison Griffiths, "The Monstrous Epic: Deciphering Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ." Chapter 15: Saer Ba, "Reading the Black Body in Epic Cinema."

Robert Burgoyne is Professor and Chair of Film Studies at the University of St Andrews. His recent publications include Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History, revised and expanded edition (2010), and The Hollywood Historical Film (2008).