The Vikings on film

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Robert A. Rosenstone

"Can filmed history measure up to written history? What happens to history when it is recorded in images, rather than words? Can images convey ideas and information that lie beyond words? Taking on these timely questions, Robert Rosenstone pioneers a new direction in the relationship between history and film. Rosenstone moves beyond traditional approaches, which examine the history of film as art and industry, or view films as texts reflecting their specific cultural contexts. This essay collection makes a radical venture into the investigation of a new concern: how a visual medium, subject to the conventions of drama and fiction, might be used as a serious vehicle for thinking about our relationship with the past. Rosenstone looks at history films in a way that forces us to reconceptualize what we mean by "history." He explores the innovative strategies of films made in Africa, Latin America, Germany, and other parts of the world. He journeys into the history of film in a wide range of cultures, and expertly traces the contours of the postmodern historical film. In essays on specific films, including Reds, JFK, and Sans Soleil, he considers such issues as the relationship between fact and film and the documentary as visionary truth. Theorists have for some time been calling our attention to the epistemological and literary limitations of traditional history. The first sustained defense of film as a way of thinking historically, this book takes us beyond those limitations."--Book cover.

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Patricia Roberts-Miller

This persuasive analysis of Puritan public discourse and its social consequences offers significant new ideas about the influence of Puritan language practices on American cultural identity.

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John Scheckter

This volume introduces the reader to a powerful and rewarding territory: the Australian novel. Both drawing from and rebelling against the power of Europe, Australian writers asserted from the beginning that experience "down under" demands thorough observation and thoughtful expression. Exploration of the vast land, framed by the horrors of penal establishment and challenged by encounters with Aboriginal cultures, produced novels of irony and expectation, cynicism and celebration - works that demonstrate the flexibility and unflinching clarity that remain characteristically Australian down to the postcolonial present.

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Stephen Cavalier

This book tells the genre's 100-year-old story around the globe, featuring key players in Europe, North America, and Asia. From its earliest days, animation has developed multiple iterations and created myriad dynamic styles, innovative techniques, iconic characters, and memorable stories. The author's account is organized chronologically and covers pioneers, feature films, television programs, digital films, games, independent films, and the web. A time line of films and innovations acts as the narrative backbone, and must-see films are listed along with synopses and in-depth biographies of individuals and studios. The book explains the evolution of animation techniques, from rotoscoping to refinements of cel techniques, direct film, claymation, and more.