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Bigger than Ben-Hur : The Book, Its Adaptations, and Their Audiences / edited by Barbara Ryan and Milette Shamir.
- Format:
- Book
- Series:
- Television and Popular Culture
- Television and popular culture
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Wallace, Lew, 1827-1905--Film adaptations.
- Wallace, Lew.
- Wallace, Lew, 1827-1905. Ben-Hur.
- Ben-Hur (Motion picture : 1959).
- Ben-Hur (Motion picture : 1925).
- Historical films--United States--History and criticism.
- Historical films.
- Motion pictures and literature.
- Christianity in motion pictures.
- Christianity in literature.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (298 p.)
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2016.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- First published in 1880, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ became a best-seller. The popular novel spawned an 1899 stage adaptation, reaching audiences of over 10 million, and two highly successful film adaptations. For over a century, it has become a ubiquitous pop cultural presence, representing a deeply powerful story and monumental experience for some and a defining work of bad taste and false piety for others. The first and only collection of essays on this pivotal cultural icon, Bigger Than "Ben-Hur" addresses Lew Wallace's beloved classic to explore its polarizing effect and to expand the contexts within which it can be studied. In the essays gathered here, scholars approach Ben-Hur from multiple directions-religious and secular, literary, theatrical, and cinematic-to understand not just one story in varied formats but also what they term the "Ben-Hur tradition." Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, contributions include the rise of the Protestant novel in the United States; relationships between and among religion, spectacle, and consumerism; the "New Woman" in early Hollywood; and a "wish list" for future adaptations, among others. Together, these essays explore how this remarkably fluid story of faith, love, and revenge has remained relevant to audiences across the globe for over 130 years.
- Contents:
- Introduction: the Ben-Hur tradition / Barbara Ryan and Milette Shamir
- Ben-Hur's and America's Rome: from virtuous republic to tyrannous empire / Eran Shalev
- Ben-Hur's mother: narrative time, nostalgia, and progress in the Protestant historical romance / Milette Shamir
- Retelling and untelling the Christmas story: Ben-Hur, Uncle Midas, and the sunday-school movement / Jefferson J. A. Gatrall
- Holy lands, restoration, and Zionism in Ben-Hur / Hilton Obenzinger
- "In the service of Christianity": Ben-Hur and the "redemption" of the American theater, 1899-1920 / Howard Miller
- June Mathis's Ben-Hur: a tale of corporate change and the decline of women's influence in Hollywood / Thomas J. Slater
- Getting Judas right: the 1925 Ben-Hur as Jesus film and Biblical epic / Richard Walsh
- Take up the white man's burden: race and resistance to Ben-Hur / Barbara Ryan
- The erotics of the galley slave: male desire and Christian sacrifice in the 1959 film version of Ben-Hur / Ina Rae Hark
- Challenging a default Ben-Hur: a wish list / David Mayer.
- Notes:
- Description based upon print version of record.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 0-8156-5331-X
- OCLC:
- 934433726
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