Alien gosd in the new epics: Noah remythologised through the ancient astronaut hypothesis in Abel's Montagut's "La gesta d'Utnoa"

Modern scientific world-view has undermined traditional myths, the functional survival of which seems to depend today in the West on a positivist justification. This would place them in the field of real History, through their study and revitalization by pseudoscientific disciplines such as the Atlantis and the ancient astronaut hypotheses. These have inspired new epic poems in (regular) verse that combine classic and/or biblical myths with a (pseudo)scientific modern world-view. For example, the critical rewriting of Noah’s myth by using the ancient astronaut hypothesis as a fictional device to produce a contemporary kind of plausibility allowed Abel Montagut to renew epic poetry, updating it also by adopting science fiction chronotopes in order to structure his fictional construction and to generate a high ethical sense for our time. Thus, his Poemo de Utnoa (1993) / La gesta d’Utnoa (1996), which has become a major classic of the literature in Esperanto thanks to its original version in this language, is a landmark of both science fiction and neo-biblical epics. This poem is written from a secular and purely literary perspective.

‘Close as a kiss’: Gyn/Affection in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad

Margaret Atwood’s novella The Penelopiad (2005) seemingly celebrates Penelope’s agency in opposition to Homer’s myth in The Odyssey. However, the twelve murdered maids steal the book to suggest the possibility of what Janice Raymond calls gyn/affection, a female bonding based on the logic of emotion that, in Atwood’s revision, verges on Kristevan abjection, the sinister and the fantastic, and serves a cathartic effect not only in the maids but also in the reader. This essay aims to question the generally accepted empowerment of Atwood’s Penelope and celebrates the murdered maids as the locus of emotion, where marginal aspects of gender and class merge to weave a powerful metaphorical tapestry of popular and traditionally feminized literary genres that, in plunging into and embracing the semiotic realm, ultimately solidify into an eclectic but compact alternative tradition of women’s writing and myth-making.

Desire, Resentment and Reprisal: Revisiting the Emotions of Myth in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

This article aims to reassess F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby (1925), taking into consideration the myth-critical hypotheses of philosopher René Girard. Specifically, this essay will analyse the concepts of mimetic desire, resentment and reprisal violence as emotional components of myth, paying close attention to how the reinterpreted mythical pattern of the novel influences the depiction of such emotions as social traits of corruption. Finally, this article will challenge interpretations that have regarded Gatsby as a successful scapegoat-figure, examining instead how the mythical meanings and structures of the text stage an emotional crisis of frustrated desire and antagonism that ultimately offers no hope of communal restoration.

"Paseo por una guerra antigua" (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1948-49): una contramemoria de la Guerra Civil

Este artículo pretende demostrar en qué medida Paseo por una guerra antigua (1948-1949), la práctica de segundo curso del Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas (IIEC) en la que Juan Antonio Bardem rueda a un joven mutilado caminando por las ruinas de la Ciudad Universitaria de Madrid, constituye un intento pionero de desmontar los relatos oficiales de la Guerra Civil Española y rescatar la memoria de los vencidos. Filmar las ruinas del campus madrileño en aquellos años era un acto sub­versivo, puesto que el Régimen había emprendido su reconstrucción para borrar las huellas del Madrid republicano y de la Guerra Civil, resignificando por completo el recinto universitario. Por tanto, en Paseo por una guerra antigua, Bardem intenta reapropiarse de un espacio que en la época iba imponiéndose como uno de los “lugares de memoria” del franquismo. Esta película se vale de la función documental del cine para inmortalizar unas ruinas que simbolizan la República y la guerra, para preservarlas de la muerte simbólica que representa su reconstrucción. Mostrar esas ruinas en 1948-1949 equivale a “materializar” el pasado, a traerlo al presente de la posguerra, en un proceso que recuerda a los planteamientos sobre la Historia de Walter Benjamin, para proponer una visión alternativa de la contienda. Se trata de una visión teñida de una memoria íntima, ya que la película es un paseo no solo por las ruinas sino también por los recuerdos de este joven mutilado. En suma, Bardem propone una contramemoria de la Guerra Civil.

Influences and advice of theatrical consumption. A study about the effect of the theatre critics and other instances of evaluation in the habits of theatre attendance

This article analyses the influence that different criticism stages of proceedings exert in the habits of theatre attendance. The study is based on the survey carried out specifically for this research in which 210 people, who attended a theatrical representation, were interviewed in three different theatres in the city of Valencia. The study has revealed the mouth to mouth importance in the decision of attending the theatre and its stronger influence on the audiences who less frequently go to theatrical representations. The results obtained have also made clear the existence of a narrow relation between the advice effect of the theatre critics and the patterns of attendance to the theatre, just like its bigger influence between theatres with commercial orientation and those which are addressed to the broad audiences.

Bailando con Dioniso: el mito de Leucipo y Daphne de Richard Strauss y Joseph Gregor

Primera parte de un artículo dividido en dos que analiza la profunda reinterpretación que del mito de Dafne llevaron a cabo, a partir del relato alternativo de Partenio de Nicea más que del célebre relato de Ovidio, Richard Strauss y su libretista Joseph Gregor en su versión operística Daphne (1938). El objetivo final es someter a examen la declaración expresa de Strauss sobre el significado de su nueva ópera y si a través de la manipulación del argumento mítico los autores lograron alcanzar su objetivo.

Ariane et la Clef d'Or

L’œuvre de Paul Dukas ne peut pas être réduite à son œuvre la plus célèbre, L’Apprenti sorcier. Ayant pratiqué aussi la critique, Dukas apparaît comme un auteur avec un style original et propre différencié de celui de Debussy. Dans Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, malveillamment considérée comme une simple réponse à Pelléas et Mélisande, sa préoccupation principale reste la transformation en musique du poème de Maeterlinck, d’en sortir la musique interne du langage écrit.

Daughter of Eve, "Femme Fatale", and Persecuted Artist: The Mythic Transgressive Woman in Oscar Wilde's and Richard Strauss's "Salome"

Historically, Salome was an unexceptional figure who never catalyzed John the Baptist's death. However, in Christian Scripture, she becomes the dancing seductress as fallen daughter of Eve.  Her stepfather Herod promises Salome his kingdom if she dances for him, but she follows her mother’s wish to have John beheaded. In Strauss’s opera, after Wilde's Symbolist-Decadent play, Salome becomes independent of Herodias’ will, and the mythic avatar of the femme fatale and persecuted artist who Herod has killed after she kisses John's severed head.  Her signature key of C# major, resolving to the C major sung by Herod and Jokanaan at her death, represent her tragic fate musically.