Imag(in)ing Otherness: Filmic Visions of Living Together (American Academy of Religion Cultural Criticism Series, No. 7)

Imag(in)ing Otherness explores relationships between film and religion, aesthetics and ethics. The volume examines these relationships by viewing how otherness is imaged in film and how otherness alternately might be imagined. Drawing from a variety of films from differing religious perspectives--including Chan Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American religions, Christianity, and Judaism--the essays gathered in this volume examine the particular problems of "living together" when faced with the tensions brought out through the otherness of differing sexualities, ethnicities, genders, religions, cultures, and families. Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Introduction: Images and Imaginings......Page 12 Part 1 Surviving Community......Page 24 1. Poetry Written with Blood: Creating Death in Dead Man......Page 26 2. Joseph and His Brothers: Quarreling After the Holocaust......Page 46 Part 2 Desiring Community......Page 56 3. The End of Desire: Theologies of Eros in the Song of Songs and Breaking the Waves......Page 58 4. Transgressing Goodness in Breaking the Waves......Page 70 Part 3 Eating Community......Page 90 5. Cinematic Communion?: Babette's Feast, Transcendental Style, and Interdisciplinarity......Page 92 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......Page 108 Part 4 Colonizing Community......Page 130 7. "What Happened in the Cave?" Communities and Outsiders in Films of India......Page 132 8. Postmodernism and Neo-Orientalism: Peter Brook's Mahabharata— Producing India Through a Body of Multicultural Images......Page 142 Part 5 Ending Community......Page 176 9. Imagining Nothing and Imaging Otherness in Buddhist Film......Page 178 10. Behold Thou the Behemoth: Imaging the Unimaginable in Monster Movies......Page 206 Afterword: Otherness ad infinitum......Page 222 Contributors......Page 228 Filmography......Page 230 Bibliography......Page 234 P......Page 238 Y......Page 239 Introduction : Images And Imaginings / S. Brent Plate -- Pt. 1: Surviving Community. Poetry Written With Blood : Creating Death In Dead Man / Gregory Salyer -- Joseph And His Brothers : Quarreling After The Holocaust / Jennifer L. Koosed -- Pt. 2: Desiring Community. The End Fo Desire : Theologies Of Eros In The Song Of Songs And Breaking The Waves / Kyle Keefer And Tod Linafelt -- Transgressing Goodness In Breaking The Waves / Irena S.m. Makarushka -- Pt. 3: Eating Community. Cinematic Communion? : Babette's Feast, Transcendental Style, And Interdisciplinarity / Maria Consuelo Maisto -- 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. Edited By S. Brent Plate, David Jasper. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 225-228) And Index. Part of an American Academy of Religion series that was formerly distributed by Scholars Press (now defunct) and is now distributed by the Academy itself under the auspices of Oxford U. Press, 2001 Evans Road, Cary, NC 27513. Train sounds. The following line in white letters against a black background: "It is preferable not to travel with a dead man."