Imag(in)ing Otherness: Filmic Visions of Living Together (American Academy of Religion Cultural Criticism)

239 Pages·1999·16.04 MB·English

by  S. Brent Plate

IMAG(IN)ING OTHERNESS
AAR
American Academy of Religion
Cultural Criticism Series
Bjorn Krondorfer
Editor
Number 7
IMAG(IN)ING OTHERNESS
FILMIC VISIONS OF LIVING TOGETHER
edited by
S. Brent Plate
David Jasper
IMAG(IN)ING OTHERNESS
FILMIC VISIONS OF LIVING TOGETHER
edited by
S. Brent Plate
David Jasper
Scholars Press
Atlanta, Georgia
IMAG(IN)ING OTHERNESS
FILMIC VISIONS OF LIVING TOGETHER
edited by
S. Brent Plate
David Jasper
Copyright © 1999 by The American Academy of Religion
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means
of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the
1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be
addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Scholars Press, P.O. Box 15399,
Atlanta, GA 30333-0399, USA.
Image for cover and on page one of the text is from the film
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
Still courtesy of Milestone Film & Video, New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Imag(in)ing otherness : filmic visions of living together / edited by S. Brent Plate, David Jasper.
p. cm. — (American Academy of Religion cultural criticism series ; no. 7)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7885-0593-9 (alk. paper)
1. Exoticism in motion pictures. 2. Minorities in motion pictures. I. Plate, S. Brent,
1996- II. Jasper, David. III. Series.
PN1995.9.E95 146 1999
791.43'655-dc21
99-045495
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Images and Imaginings
S. Brent Plate 3
Parti
Surviving Community
1. Poetry Written with Blood: Creating Death in Dead Man
Gregory Salyer 17
2. Joseph and His Brothers: Quarreling After the Holocaust
Jennifer L. Koosed 37
Part 2
Desiring Community
3. The End of Desire: Theologies of Eros in the Song of Songs and
Breaking the Waves
Kyle Keefer and Tod Linafelt 49
4. Transgressing Goodness in Breaking the Waves
Irena S. M. Makarushka 61
Part 3
Eating Community
5. Cinematic Communion?: Babette's Feast, Transcendental Style,
and Interdisciplinarity
Maria Consuelo Maisto 83
6. When Your Family is Other, and the Other Your Family: Freedom and
Obligation in Frank Capra's You Can't Take it With You
Patrick Caruso and S. Brent Plate 99
v
vi
Part 4
Colonizing Community
7. "What Happened in the Cave?" Communities and Outsiders in
Films of India
David Jasper 123
7. Postmodernism and Neo-Orientalism: Peter Brook's Mahabharata—
Producing India Through a Body of Multicultural Images
Ira Bhaskar .....133
Parts
Ending Community
9. Imagining Nothing and Imaging Otherness in Buddhist Film
Francisca Cho ..169
10. Behold Thou the Behemoth: Imaging the Unimaginable in
Monster Movies
Timothy K. Bed.. 197
Afterword: Otherness ad infmitum
David Jasper 213
Contributors ...219
Filmography 221
Bibliography ...225
Index .....229
vii
Acknowledgements
For extra help in obtaining film stills, the Editors wish to thank Mary Corliss
and Terry Geeskin of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Library, NYC; Stacie
Smith at Exoskeleton, NYC; Nikolai Amburgey at October Films, NYC; Caitlin
Broderick at Miramax, NYC; and Dennis Doros at Milestone Film and Video,
NYC. Thank you to Bill Blizek and Ronald Burke, editors of The Journal of
Religion and Film for permissions to reprint the articles by Tod Linafelt and Kyle
Keefer, and Irena Makarashka. Both articles originally appeared in the journal
issue 2.1.
Thanks to Michael Bradley of Scholars Press for answering a lot of
questions as the manuscript was being prepared.
Brent wishes to thank the following persons for general encouragement and
quite a few good discussions over breakfasts in Atlanta: Gabriella Boston, Chris
Boesel, and Julie Sexeny. For challenges to the way I see, I would also like to
thank Robin Blaetz of Emory University. And finally, many thanks to Edna Melisa
Rodriguez-Mangual, for watching all those films with me.
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