Mise En Scène
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt THE WORD MADE CINEMATIC: THE REPRESENTATION OF JESUS IN CINEMA by Gregory Kahlil Kareem Allen B.A. Film Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 1997 M.A. English Literature, University of Pittsburgh, 2002 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Gregory Kahlil Kareem Allen It was defended on April 24, 2008 and approved by Adam Lowenstein, Associate Professor, Department of English Troy Boone, Associate Professor, Department of English Vernell A. Lillie, Professor Emeritus, Department of Africana Studies Dissertation Chair/Advisor: Marcia Landy, Distinguished Service Professor, Department of English ii Copyright © by Gregory Kahlil Kareem Allen 2008 iii The Word Made Cinematic: The Representation of Jesus in Cinema Gregory Kahlil Kareem Allen, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2008 Marking the invention of cinema as a point of entry and consequent filmic narratives about Jesus as aesthetic documents, this study will demonstrate how movie-going, due to its similarity to the devotional exercise of “worship” and the motion picture’s continual co-option for perceived religious purposes as readily indicated by the recent reception of The Passion of the Christ, complicates what otherwise might be the obvious distinction between the sacred and the profane. Examining the way in which the spectator is prompted by certain traditions of cinematic language and interpretation, this dissertation demonstrates how the representation of the Jesus in cinema must by definition always insinuate the sacrosanct, even if the symbol or image is presented in a context perceived to be secular.
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