Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Ovid's Rich Text - Layers of identity in the Pygmalion myth 2. Tragic Transformations: Making and breaking the statue on screen 3. Romancing the Stone: The made-over woman as comedy 4. She was Venus all along: The statue as screen goddess 5. Pygmalion's robots - The horror and the humour 6. Bathos and Pathos - A simulacrum among simulacra 7. Virtually Perfect: Hi and lo tech gals of the computer age 8. More Myth Making at the Movies Appendix: Ovid's Pygmalion Bibliography Filmography Index
Exploration of the reception of Ovid's myth throughout history in fiction, film and television.
Paula James is Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies at The Open University, UK, and has published widely in Latin Literature and on the reception of classical motifs in popular culture. She has appeared on 'Women's Hour' on Radio 4 to talk about her previous book The Role of the Parrot in Selected Texts from Ovid to Jean Rhysand has also appeared on Radio 3's Greek and Roman Essay series, speaking on Cicero.
Paula James has produced a brilliant and engaging study of how and
why the modern media of film and television continue to refashion
ancient mythological narratives for contemporary audiences, in this
case, Ovid's story of Pygmalion and his ivory statue come to life.
In a series of provocative and detailed chapters, James expertly
examines an array of cinematic and televisual texts - from classic
films like Vertigo (1958) to more recent screen productions such as
Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(1997-2003) - that correspond on both the narrative and figurative
levels to Ovid's myth of the "made-over woman." James deftly
unravels the myth's infinite and powerful layers as she explores
the popular genre of "make-over films," while delving into the
question of our eternal fascination with the theme of artfully - or
artificially - created life and the problems of "perfection"
inherent in the eyes of the beholder. With the analytical skills of
a classicist and the ardor of a film fan, James succeeds in
assessing both the impact of the classical myth on modern viewers,
as well as how each onscreen reception in its current cultural
context sheds further interpretive light on the ancient story.
Monica S. Cyrino, University of New Mexico, USA
The story of Elisa Doolittle, the working class flower girl
transformed into the image of a Duchess by Professor Higgins, was
made famous by the 1964 musical My Fair Lady. In her excellent
book, Paula James positions this story within a more complex and
long standing literary and cinematic tradition. Beginning with
Ovid's epic poetry and his version of the Pygmalion myth, James
explores how the narrative trope of the make-over has been
repeatedly reworked and re-imagined on screen. Bringing together an
exciting range of literary, cinematic, and televisual texts as
diverse as Pygmalion, Vertigo, Pretty Woman, Miss Congeniality and
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, James offers an insightful discussion of
the perennial cultural need to fashion and re-fashion women into a
fantasy ideal. Scholarly and engaging, this book will make you look
at these texts, whether classical or pop culture, like never
before. Stacey Abbot, Reader in Film and Television Studies,
Roehampton University, London, UK
Drawing on an impressive range of scholarship, James generously
acknowledges the work of others as well as forming her own
conclusions surrounding the ultimate inadequacies of the created
feminine ideal.. The book explores the ongoing fascination with
Ovid’s Pygmalion story, explains why it still has powerful
resonances today and, furthermore, suggests how its new reworkings
can illuminate readings of Ovid’s Metamorphoses itself.
*Bryn Mawr Classical Review*
The fortunes of the Pygmalion story in literature and the fine arts
have been well canvassed over the years; James provides the most
extensive coverage so far for film and television.
*Translation and Literature*
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