Reception of Mesopotamia on Film

Maria de Fátima Rosa is Assistant Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon and a researcher at the Center for History of the University of Lisbon since 2021. She holds a PhD in the History of Ancient Mesopotamia, and her interests include the reception of Mesopotamian antiquity by modern and contemporary cultures.

• List of Abbreviations ixAcknowledgments xIntroduction: Reception of Mesopotamia and the Cinema Lens 10.1 Reception Studies and Cinema 10.2 Why Cinema? What Cinema? 50.3 Orientalism and the Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia 9Part I The Pre-Cinematographic Image: A Complex Plot 151 The Old Testament Paradigm and the Romanticism of the Classics 171.1 The Genesis of Confusion 171.1.1 From Babylon to Babel 171.1.2 In the Beginning, Nimrod 201.1.3 Daniel and the Ruin of the Neo-Babylonian Empire 221.2 Greek Ethnocentricity and the Emergence of Legendary Figures 261.2.1 A discourse About the Other 261.2.2 The Subversion of Roles: The Dilution of the Male/Female Binomial 282 Mesopotamia in Literature and on Stage 332.1 The Resurrection of Classical Legendary Figures 332.2 Tragic Mesopotamian Heroes and Their Dramatization 342.2.1 Semiramis from Manfredi to Rossini 342.2.2 Sardanapalus, Myrrah and Their Fateful Destiny 402.2.3 The Various Nabuccos 433 The Appropriation and Visual Reproduction of Assyria and Babylon 473.1 Mesopotamia Pre-Discovered: Testimonies from an Unknown World 473.2 The Archaeological Exploration 523.3 Mesopotamia Post-discovered: The Introduction of Assyrianizing Elements 60Part II The Portrayal of Mesopotamia in Cinema 654 Genres and Cinematographic Contexts 674.1 Why Antiquity? 674.2 Early French Cinema and Its Motivations 714.3 American Cinema, the Epic Genre, and the Judeo-Christian Legacy 744.4 Italian Cinema and the Greco-Roman Heritage 804.4.1 The First Golden Age 804.4.2 Peplum and the Genesis of the West 845 Mesopotamia as the Seed of Evil 895.1 Resurrecting Ancient Near Eastern Demons 895.2 Present Speeches From an Ancient Demoniacal Past 975.2.1 Religious Narratives: The Apocalypse and the Whore of Babylon 975.2.2 Political Narratives: Communism, Capitalism, Nazism, and Terrorism 1056 Imagining the Land Between the Rivers: Urbanism and Culture 1166.1 The City as a Privileged Setting 1166.1.1 The Hyperbolizing of Urban Architecture 1166.1.2 The Polarization of the City: Palace and Temple 1246.2 The Ziggurat Tower: Babel Intertwining Past and Present 1306.3 Exoticism and Modernism: Colliding Worlds in Mesopotamia 1396.3.1 Hybridism and Advance Machinery in the Era of Industrial Revival 1396.3.2 Universalizing Mesopotamia in Post-Fascist Italy 1437 Exploring Mesopotamia’s Society and Politics 1487.1 A Portrait of the King and Queen and Their Population 1487.1.1 Eastern Stereotypes and Socio-political Contexts 1487.1.2 The Mesopotamian Fascist vs. the Mesopotamian Apostle of Tolerance 1527.2 Religion and Politics 1577.2.1 Gods at War: Idolatry, Holocaust and the Judeo-Christian Faith 1577.2.2 It’s Every Man for Himself 1688 The Ancient Near Eastern Woman Under the Lens 1738.1 Judith against Assyria 1738.1.1 Female Emancipation vs. Biblical Conservatism 1738.1.2 The Debate Regarding the “New Woman” 1768.2 The Two Semiramis 1808.3 Mesopotamian Bacchanals and Odd Rituals 1879 Farewell Babylon, Farewell Nineveh 195Bibliography 200Index 224