[ecrea] CFP: New Heart and New Spirit: Perspectives on the Modern Biblical Epic

*CFP: /New Heart and New Spirit: Perspectives on the Modern Biblical Epic/*


The extreme profitability of Mel Gibson’s /The Passion of the Christ/ in 
2004 came as a great surprise to the Hollywood establishment, 
particularly considering its failure to find production funding through 
a major studio.  Since this time, the big-budget mainstream biblical 
epic, long thought dead in terms of widespread marketability, has become 
a viable Hollywood studio product with regards to seeking both profits 
and critical acclaim, as well as outlets for auteurist ‘passion 
projects’ such as Gibson’s film, Darren Aronofsky’s /Noah/ (2014), and 
Ridley Scott’s /Exodus: Gods and Kings/.  With this year seeing two new 
fiction films featuring depictions of Jesus, the crucifixion, and 
resurrection [/Risen /(dir. Kevin Reynolds) and/Ben-Hur /(dir. Timur 
Bekmambetov)], academic consideration of the modern biblical epic is 
both timely and highly relevant.

                This is a preliminary call for papers and proposals for 
an edited collection using a broad range of approaches in the analysis 
of these films and this phenomenon specifically.  Proposals can address, 
but are not limited to:

-Stylistic and narrative analysis

-Considerations of genre

-Historical and political contexts

-Industrial efforts to capitalise on this trend (see the short-lived Fox 
Faith studios in the mid 2000s and its products)

-Critical viability and acceptance

-Intersections of, or discord between, faith and fandom

-Representations of race and gender

-Auteurist analyses of these films

-Philosophical and more broadly theoretical approaches to these films 
and this trend.

*/Proposals and abstracts of approximately 300 words with a short bio 
can be submitted to Wickham Clayton by 31 August/*, at 
(wickscripts /at/ hotmail.com) <mailto:(wickscripts /at/ hotmail.com)> .  Also feel 
free to email for expressions of interest and questions regarding the 
project.



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