The Birth of a Nation as American Myth

The Birth of a Nation was one of the most important films of all time, both for its technical and aesthetic achievements and for its enduring legacy of racism. This paper uses Bruce Lincoln's approach to myth as a form of discourse and Robert Bellah's notion of civil religion to show how B...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Salter, Richard (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publié: 2004
Dans: The journal of religion and film
Année: 2004, Volume: 8, Numéro: 3
Accès en ligne: Volltext (kostenfrei)
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Description
Résumé:The Birth of a Nation was one of the most important films of all time, both for its technical and aesthetic achievements and for its enduring legacy of racism. This paper uses Bruce Lincoln's approach to myth as a form of discourse and Robert Bellah's notion of civil religion to show how Birth might be understood as a mythic component of American civil religion. From this perspective, Birth serves as a paradigmatic story of American origins rooted in ideas of white supremacy. At the end of the article Oscar Micheaux's work, Within our Gates, is used to briefly demonstrate filmic strategies for countering Birth as myth.
ISSN:1092-1311
Contient:Enthalten in: The journal of religion and film
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.32873/uno.dc.jrf.08.03.06