Confronting Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf in the Digital Age

  • Arnab Chatterjee
Keywords: online English research journal, research papers publisher, UGC approved journal, Peer reviewed literary journal, Arnab Chatterjee, Confronting Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf in the Digital Age

Abstract

It is a fundamental fact that an epic documents the exploits of certain characters on a scale that sometimes crosses the limits of both space and time; in fact, these features account for the “grand style” of any epic composed. Coupled with its bravura sweep, any epic is also a faithful documentation of the age in which it is written, something that Prof. E.M.W. Tillyard calls its “choric” quality. However, in the digital age, with the advent of animation and other such modes of representation, much of the erstwhile grandeur of the traditional epics seems to have been lost, and this brings us closer to Walter Benjamin’s remark that in the mechanical age, a work of art loses is pseudo-divine aura as we tend to have “copies” of the work that is readily consumed. Taking clues from such theorists, this proposed paper is an attempt to locate Beowulf  in the digital age and within the ‘mechanics’ of representation called “animation pictures” and alternative narratological strategies  that tend to compromise not only with its original tone, but also with the story line.

Keywords

Animation, Grand style, Digital, Walter Benjamin, Narratological.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Arnab Chatterjee

Arnab Chatterjee 

References

1. Beowulf. Dir Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Antony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, et.al. Warner Bros., 2007. Film.
2. Beowulf and Grendel. Dir. Sturla Gunnarson. Perf. Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, Rory McCann, et.al. Truly Indie. 2005. Film.
3. Gordon, R.K. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London: Everyman’s Library, 1926. Print.
4. Highet, Gilbert. ‘A Neglected Masterpiece “Olympian Spring”.’The Antioch
5. Review 12.3(1952):338-46.JSTOR.Web. Accessed 1 Feb
6. 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4609578
7. Krows, Arthur Edwin. “Literature and the Motion Picture.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 128.1(1926): 70-73. Web. Accessed 21 Feb 2015. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000271622612800111?journalCode=anna
8. Leith, Vincent B., et al. eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. “The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” By Walter Benjamin. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001. 1163-86. Print.
9. Polar Express. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Tom Hanks, Michael Jeter, Nona
10. Gaye, et.al. Warner Bros. Pictures. 2004. Film.
11. Prince, F.T., ed. Paradise Lost: Bks. I and II. By John Milton. 19th ed. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
12. Spitteler, Carl. Olympian Spring. n.p .:n. p.,[1910?]. Print.
13. Walcott, Derek. Omeros. [New York?]:Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1990. Print.
Published
2018-11-10
How to Cite
Chatterjee, A. “Confronting Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf in the Digital Age”. Contemporary Literary Review India, Vol. 5, no. 4, Nov. 2018, pp. 33-46, https://www.literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/73.
Section
Research Papers