Bøker av Maria Wyke

This volume analyzes the ways in which the Hollywood and Italian film industries have resurrected ancient Rome to address present concerns. Through case studies, the book explores cinema's use of the past to excavate present issues of nationhood, colonialism, gender and cinema itself.

The figure of Julius Caesar has loomed large in the United States since its very beginning, admired and evoked as a gateway to knowledge of politics, war, and even national life. In this lively and perceptive book, the first to examine Caesar's place in modern American culture, Maria Wyke investigates how his use has intensified in periods of political crisis, when the occurrence of assassination, war, dictatorship, totalitarianism or empire appears to give him fresh relevance. Her fascinating discussion shows how-from the Latin classroom to the Shakespearean stage, from cinema, television and the comic book to the internet-Caesar is mobilized in the U.S. as a resource for acculturation into the American present, as a prediction of America's future, or as a mode of commercial profit and great entertainment.

"Caesar" is not so much about Caesar the man as all the many versions of him in poetry, literature, opera, and drama. . . . A lively and thought-provoking read which skips lightly across the centuries.--Adrian Goldsworthy, "Spectator"