http://www.interferenceslitteraires.be ISSN : 2031 - 2790 Christiane HANSEN (Un)Fading the Hero in Pre- and Postmodern Cultures of Visual Artifice Zusammenfassung Obwohl sie in total anderen historischen und kulturellen Kontexten eingebettet sind, bieten die spektakelhaften Theaterproduktionen der englischen Restauration und die heutige digitale Filmindustrie ein fruchtbares Versuchsgelände um die Verflechtungen von visuellen Kunstgriffen und Begriffen des Heroischen zu sondieren. Mein Beitrag legt dar, wie diese Konfigurationen von Medien, Technologien und Publika mit (affektiven) Moden von Verbundenheit interagieren, die heroischen Figurationen sowie kulturellen Begriffen des Heroischen zugrunde liegen. Mit Drydens Conquest of Granada (1669) und Settles Empress of Morocco (1673) als Fallstudien wird im ersten Teil analysiert, wie (konkurrierende) Muster von heroischem Effekt und Publikumsreaktion vermittelt werden und wie affektive Reaktionen mit Zuerkennungen von Macht vernetzt sind. Die Filmindustrie des 21. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere digitale 3D-Filme, ist auf ähnliche Weise gekennzeichnet von Paradigmenwechseln in Medienkulturen und Wahrnehmungsmustern und arbeitet mit den Grenzen von Sinnestäuschung. In einer close reading von Cuarón’s Gravity (2013) werde ich analysieren, wie die fotorealistische und stereoskopische Ausdehnung des Raums und die Verflechtung von Bild und Geschichte die Zuschauersposition aus dem Gleichgewicht bringen und etablierte Tropen heroischer Exzeptionalität umformen. Abstract Although embedded in radically different historical and cultural contexts, the spectacular theatrical productions of the English Restoration and the present-day digital film industry provide a rich testing ground to explore the intersections of visual artifice with negotiations of the heroic. My paper analyses how these configurations of media, technologies and audiences interact with the (affective) modes of relatedness which determine heroic figurations as well as cultural concepts of the heroic. Using Dryden’s Conquest of Granada (1669) and Settle’s Empress of Morocco (1673) as case studies, the first part sets out to analyse how (competing) modes of heroic effect and audience response are negotiated, and how affective responses are tied to allocations of power. 21st-century cinema, and digital 3D in particular, is similarly characterized by paradigmatic shifts in media cultures and perceptual habits, and constantly operates on the boundaries of illusion. In a close reading of Cuarón’s Gravity (2013), I will analyse how the photorealistic and stereoscopic expansion of space as well as the intersection of image and narrative comes to unhinge the spectators’ position and inflects established tropes of heroic exceptionality. To quote this article: Christiane HANSEN «(Un)Fading of the Hero in Pre- and Postmodern Cultures of Visual Artifice», in: Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties, 22, « Un-Fading the Hero. Reconfiguring Ancient and Premodern Heroic Templates in Modern and Contemporary Culture», ed. by Michiel RYS & Bart PHILIPSEN, September 2018, 99-112. COMITÉ DE DIRECTION – REDACTIECOMITÉ Anke Gilleir (KU Leuven) – Rédacteur en chef - Hoofdredacteur Beatrijs Vanacker (KU Leuven) – Secrétaire de rédaction - Redactiesecretaris Elke D’HOKER (KU Leuven) Lieven D’HULST (KU Leuven – Kortrijk) David MARTENS (KU Leuven) Hubert ROLAND (FNRS – UCL) Matthieu SErgIER ((UCL & Factultés Universitaires Saint-Louis) Myriam WATTHEE-DELMOTTE (FNRS – UCL) CONSEIL DE RÉDACTION – REDACTIERAAD Sascha BRU (KU Leuven) Michel LISSE (FNRS – UCL) Geneviève FABRY (UCL) Anneleen MASSCHELEIN (KU Leuven) Agnès GUIDERDONI (FNRS – UCL) Christophe MEURÉE (FNRS – UCL) Ortwin DE GRAEF (KU Leuven) Reine MEYLAERTS (KU Leuven) Jan HERMAN (KU Leuven) Stéphanie VANASTEN (FNRS – UCL) Guido LATRÉ (UCL) Bart VAN DEN BOSCHE (KU Leuven) Nadia LIE (KU Leuven) Marc VAN VAECK (KU Leuven) COMITÉ SCIENTIFIQUE – WETENSCHAPPELIJK COMITÉ Olivier AMMOUR-MAYEUR (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle -– Gillis DORLEIJN (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) Paris III & Université Toulouse II – Le Mirail) Ute HEIDMANN (Université de Lausanne) ERENSMEYER Ingo B (Universität Giessen) Klaus H. KIEFER (Ludwig Maxilimians Universität München) ERNAERTS Lars B (Universiteit Gent & Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Michael KOLHAUER (Université de Savoie) INCKES Faith B (Worcester College – Oxford) Isabelle KRZYWKOWSKI (Université Stendhal-Grenoble III) OSSIER Philiep B (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) Mathilde LABBÉ (Université Paris Sorbonne) RUERA Franca B (Università di Torino) Sofiane LAghOUATI (Musée Royal de Mariemont) EBALLOS IRO Àlvaro C V (Université de Liège) François LECERCLE (Université Paris Sorbonne) HELEBOUrg Christian C (Université de Lorraine) Ilse LOGIE (Universiteit Gent) OSTADURA Edoardo C (Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena) Marc MAUFORT (Université Libre de Bruxelles) REIghTON Nicola C (Queen’s University Belfast) Isabelle MEURET (Université Libre de Bruxelles) ECKER William M. D (Oklahoma State University) Christina MORIN (University of Limerick) DE RUYN Ben B (Maastricht University) Miguel NORBARTUBArrI (Universiteit Antwerpen) ELABASTITA Dirk D (Université de Namur) Andréa OBErhUBER (Université de Montréal) ELVILLE Michel D (Université de Liège) Jan OOSTErhOLT (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg) OMINGUEZ César D (Universidad de Santiago de Compostella Maïté SNAUWAERT (University of Alberta – Edmonton) & King’s College) Pieter VERSTRAETEN ((Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) Interférences littéraires / Literaire interferenties KU Leuven – Faculteit Letteren Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 – Bus 3331 B 3000 Leuven (Belgium) Contact : [email protected] & [email protected] Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties, 22, September 2018 (Un)Fading the Hero in Pre- and Postmodern Cultures of Visual Artifice In a 2010 Newsweek article, blatantly titled Why I hate 3-D (And You Should Too), Roger Ebert, one of the most prolific American film critics, rejects digital 3D technology as a cleverly marketed rip-off without any particular aesthetic merits: 3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood’s current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. For some, it is an annoying distraction. For others, it creates nausea and headaches. It is driven largely to sell expensive projection equipment and add a $5 to $7.50 surcharge on already expensive movie tickets. […] It is unsuitable for grown-up films of any seriousness.1 While clearly targeting very specific developments in the 21st century mediascape, Ebert’s verdict symptomatically echoes longstanding reservations against visual spectacle. In the 1670s, critics of the newly opened London stage drew on similar, well-established anti-spectacular tropes that had become particularly virulent with the Reformation. A case in point is a 1673 pamphlet by Dryden, Crowne and Shadwell that was lanced against Elkanah Settle’s Empress of Morocco, a salient example of the Restoration spectacular. Dismissing the play as “a Rhapsody of non-sense”,2 they claimed it was luring audiences into the playhouse by promising spectacular exotic settings and characters just as foolish as their author.3 At the same time, the pamphlet aimed to discredit the play’s audience by making a pronouncedly social differentiation regarding theatrical impact: “the common Audience are much of his levell, and both the great Vulgar and the small [...] are apt to admire what they do not understand; (omne ignotum habent pro magnifico) and think all which rumbles is Heroick.”4 Although both paradigms in their historical context could hardly be more different, this verdict is revealingly close to Ebert’s polemic recourse to alleged levels of intellectual maturity (“grown-up films of any seriousness”). It will, of course, seem bold to compare the late 17th century spectacular theatre to the present-day digital film industry – and one hardly needs to point out the historical, cultural and aesthetic differences of both phenomena. Both, however, provide a rich testing ground to explore the intersections of visual artifice with negotiations of the heroic, and more generally, the embeddedness of heroic 1. Roger EBERT, “Why I Hate 3-D (And You Should Too)”, in: Newsweek 9 May 2010 [online], <http://europe.newsweek.com/roger-ebert-why-i-hate-3d-movies-70247?rm=eu>. 2. John DRYDEN, “Notes and Observations on ‘The Empress of Morocco’”, in: The Works of John Dryden. Vol. 17: Prose 1668-1691, Berkeley, Calif. [et al.], U of Calif. P, 1971, 83. 3. “He has a heavy hand at Fools, and a great felicity in writing Non-sense for them. Fools they will be in spight of him. His King, his two Empresses, his Villain and his Sub-villain, nay his Heroe have all a certain natural cast of the Father”, ibid., 85. 4. Ibidem. 99 CULTURES OF VISUAL ARTIFICE constructions in specific frameworks of media, institutions and genre distinctions. Following Frank Kessler’s pragmatic approach to the dispositive of cinema,5 I will assume that a medium can, in given historical contexts, produce a specific, and possibly dominating configuration of text, technology and spectatorship, and that these configurations will decisively influence or interact with the relational dynamics of the heroic. I will focus first on English Restoration stage before turning to the 21st century screen, paying special attention to the digitisation of popular cinema and the ongoing proliferation of stereoscopic images. Given the scope of this paper, my conclusions