A Critical Companion to Julie Taymor: : Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Directors Anna Baccanti Lexington Books

A Critical Companion to Julie Taymor

Description

A Critical Companion to Julie Taymor is the most updated and holistic volume on the director currently published. Situating Taymor’s work within the intersections of story and spectacle, contributors to this collection examine issues of creativity, gender, sexuality, and adaptation by focusing on themes from Taymor’s oeuvre including martyrdom, musicality, fidelity, postmodern representations, feminism and queerness, identity, desire, trauma, revenge, hybridity, and obscenity. The result reveals Julie Taymor to be a globally-influenced American director who exhibits and exemplifies the authentic artistry of ingenious storytelling and deserves scholarly attention. This work will be of particular interest to scholars of film, philosophy, popular culture, gender, feminisms, and queer identities.

Part I: Creativity

Chapter 1: Julie Taymor’s Frida: A Two-Way Mirror on Female Creativity
Chapter 2: ‘We Can Work It Out’: Reassessing Musicality, Fidelity and Excess in Across the Universe
Chapter 3: From Historical Relevance to Postmodern Revisionism: The Case of Julie Taymor’s Titus
Chapter 4: Across the Universe: How Political Mood Shapes Viewers’ Choices and Box Office Success

Part II: Gender and Sexuality

Chapter 5: Disruptive Desires and Creative Transgressions in Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe
Chapter 6: Framing a Feminist: Vehicles, Bodies and Clothing as Biography in The Glorias
Chapter 7: Frida: Creativity, Trauma and the Woman Artist
Chapter 8: Why Feminism? An Examination of the Philosophy of Gender in The Glorias
Chapter 9: Wanton Boys: Queering Childhood and Youth in Julie Taymor’s Titus

Part III: Adaptation

Chapter 10: Fool’s Fire, Titus, The Tempest: Revenge in the Films of Julie Taymor
Chapter 11: From Titus to Tempest: Taymor’s Divergent Lenses on Shakespeare
Chapter 12: Hybridity and Self-Reflexivity in Julie Taymor’s Film of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Chapter 13: Compulsive Symbolizations: Scenes of Power, Figuration and Ob/Scenity in Titus

Product details

Published	Dec 12 2023
Format	Hardback
Edition	1st
Extent	274
ISBN	9781666936681
Imprint	Lexington Books
Dimensions	239 x 159 mm
Series	Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Directors
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Anthology Editor

Matthew Hodge

Anthology Editor

Adam Barkman

Anthology Editor

Antonio Sanna

Contributor

Anna Baccanti

Contributor

Adam Barkman

Contributor

Louis Breitsohl

Contributor

Andrew Grossman

Contributor

Matthew Hodge

Contributor

Claire Kimball

Contributor

Elizabeth Klett

Contributor

Dominique Angela M. Juntado

Contributor

Sony Jalarajan Raj

Contributor

Antonio Sanna

Contributor

Gabrielle Stecher

Contributor

Adith K. Suresh

Contributor

Jeff Turner

Contributor

Leanne Weston

Contributor

Shawn H. Williams

A multifaceted kaleidoscopic investigation into Julie Taymor's visionary work: the anthology critiques, explores, and unearths the hidden narratives, politics, and unique trends of her auteurship in an insightful, defining and lucid way. The case studies on her filmography—ranging from Shakespeare, an artist's and a feminist icon's biographies, to the Beatles' jukebox musical—are compellingly scrutinized and presented with unsurprising flair and rigour.

George Rodosthenous, University of Leeds
This volume engages with the directorial style and individual works of Julie Taymor in innovative and thought-provoking ways. By considering issues of creativity, gender and sexuality, and adaptation, the chapters in this collection offer readers multiple perspectives through which to understand and explore Taymor’s oeuvre. This well-written volume also supports film studies scholarship focused on women, whose insights and unique approaches to filmmaking merit further attention.

Rachel L. Carazo, St. Thomas University