{"title":"巫术与电影的不可思议起源","authors":"Elizabeth Ezra","doi":"10.3366/gothic.2024.0182","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Around the turn of the twentieth century, the rise of cinema as an art form and as a medium of communication offered new ways of transmitting old myths. The gothic figure of the witch offered a frisson of transgression that was ultimately contained on the big screen, especially in works considered to be unthreatening because of their playful nature. The power of transformation ascribed to witches was mirrored in the power of film itself, as demonstrated by cinema's origin story, the ‘lucky’ accident that took place as Méliès filmed on the Place de l’Opéra, in which men appeared to become women and a trolley turned into a hearse. This essay examines the gendered (and often transgendered) struggle for dominance in films depicting witches and magical transformation in the context of the Freudian uncanny in a number of early films, including several silent-era precursors to MGM's Wizard of Oz (Fleming 1939).","PeriodicalId":42443,"journal":{"name":"Gothic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Witchcraft and the Uncanny Origins of Cinema\",\"authors\":\"Elizabeth Ezra\",\"doi\":\"10.3366/gothic.2024.0182\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Around the turn of the twentieth century, the rise of cinema as an art form and as a medium of communication offered new ways of transmitting old myths. The gothic figure of the witch offered a frisson of transgression that was ultimately contained on the big screen, especially in works considered to be unthreatening because of their playful nature. The power of transformation ascribed to witches was mirrored in the power of film itself, as demonstrated by cinema's origin story, the ‘lucky’ accident that took place as Méliès filmed on the Place de l’Opéra, in which men appeared to become women and a trolley turned into a hearse. This essay examines the gendered (and often transgendered) struggle for dominance in films depicting witches and magical transformation in the context of the Freudian uncanny in a number of early films, including several silent-era precursors to MGM's Wizard of Oz (Fleming 1939).\",\"PeriodicalId\":42443,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Gothic Studies\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.2000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-03-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Gothic Studies\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.3366/gothic.2024.0182\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"N/A\",\"JCRName\":\"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Gothic Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3366/gothic.2024.0182","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"N/A","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Around the turn of the twentieth century, the rise of cinema as an art form and as a medium of communication offered new ways of transmitting old myths. The gothic figure of the witch offered a frisson of transgression that was ultimately contained on the big screen, especially in works considered to be unthreatening because of their playful nature. The power of transformation ascribed to witches was mirrored in the power of film itself, as demonstrated by cinema's origin story, the ‘lucky’ accident that took place as Méliès filmed on the Place de l’Opéra, in which men appeared to become women and a trolley turned into a hearse. This essay examines the gendered (and often transgendered) struggle for dominance in films depicting witches and magical transformation in the context of the Freudian uncanny in a number of early films, including several silent-era precursors to MGM's Wizard of Oz (Fleming 1939).
期刊介绍:
The official journal of the International Gothic Association considers the field of Gothic studies from the eighteenth century to the present day. Gothic Studies opens a forum for dialogue and cultural criticism, and provides a specialist journal for scholars working in a field which is today taught or researched in academic institutions around the globe. The journal invites contributions from scholars working within any period of the Gothic; interdisciplinary scholarship is especially welcome, as are studies of works across the range of media, beyond the written word.