343 research outputs found
Introduction : 'Cinema-spiritualism' in Southeast Asia and beyond - encounters with ghosts in the 21st century
Who defines "the popular" ? : post-colonial discourses on national identity and popular Christianity in the Philippines
God on Display: On the Agency of âLiving Thingsâ in the Museum
To talk of âliving thingsâ seems paradoxical at first: the word âthingsâ seems to
represent the inanimate, and thus exactly the opposite of living beings. Nevertheless,
human encounters with âliving thingsâ are not entirely unfamiliar. Late
medieval miracle books are full of stories of weeping Madonnas, crucifixes that
move, or speaking figures of saints. We read in missionary reports from the 17th
century onwards, that so-called pagans consider certain dead things to be alive,
and consequently worship them. We encounter âliving thingsâ in fictional literature
too, such as E.T.A. Hoffmannâs The Sandman (1816), and popular films, such
as John Carpenterâs Christine (1983) or John Lasetterâs Toy Story (1995, 1999,
2010, 2019). Anyone watching a child interacting with a doll or teddy bear can
immediately see that living things are at play here
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