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Abstract
The portrayal of disability within sacred and dramatic narratives offers an avenue for the examination of societal and theological paradigms. Such an examination is attempted in this study by investigating the representation of disability in the Bible and Ola Rotimi’s play Hopes of the Living Dead through the theoretical frameworks of Ableism and Reynolds’ hermeneutical approach. Biblical stories depicting disability as a curse, a tool, and a subject of divine healing are used in the research to explore the complex interplay between societal perceptions and theological implications. Rotimi’s dramatization of people with leprosy further elucidates themes of marginalisation and resilience within a predominantly secular context. Integrating Ableism theory, this paper critiques normative conceptions of ability and disability, while Reynolds’ hermeneutical methodology facilitates a nuanced interpretation of the often-conflicting representations found in both sacred texts and dramatic literature. This interdisciplinary approach yields comprehensive insights into the cultural, religious, and social constructs surrounding disability, advocating for more inclusive and empathetic interpretative practices.
Abstract
This article seeks to demonstrate the heretofore unnoted influence of Arthur Conan Doyle on the poetry of James Merrill, most notably in both Merrill’s famous lyric, “Lost in Translation,” and his epic trilogy, The Changing Light at Sandover. In particular, the article seeks to show how Merrill saw as proximal to each other what many Conan Doyle experts and Sherlockians have seen as befuddlingly exclusive: the skepticism of Sherlock Holmes and the spiritualism of his creator, Conan Doyle.
Abstract
This article explores how the womanist theology of M. Shawn Copeland illuminates the theological dimensions of Toni Morrison’s 1997 novel, Paradise. With reference to Copeland’s thought, I argue that Morrison re-imagines the crucifixion anew during the novel’s climax, in which five socially marginalized and racially diverse women are scapegoated and murdered by male leaders of the all-black town, Ruby. Drawing upon the thought of James Cone and observations by Morrison herself, I further describe these women’s murders as a kind of lynching. Morrison thus demonstrates how racism’s logic of domination becomes internalized and replicated by Ruby’s male-power structure. The lynching of the women thereby emerges as ironic, for the men’s intentions to create an all-black paradise unconsciously imitate the oppression and perverse theology of white supremacy. Morrison’s novel thus encourages readers to re-imagine the cross so as to reject exclusionary forms of Christianity.
Abstract
In his Death and Disaster series, Andy Warhol’s Byzantine Catholic upbringing and beliefs take shape in his portraits of celebrities and unnamed disaster victims alike. While previous scholarship on the series describes Warhol’s representation of death as consumerist, callous, and contributing to spectacle culture driven by mass media, my work instead focuses on Warhol’s adoption and transformation of the Byzantine iconic tradition. In choosing to appropriate tabloid images of otherwise anonymous fatalities in the Disaster series, Warhol dignifies disaster victims as the secular martyrs of a rapidly modernizing world, where we are often mere casualties sacrificed in the name of industrial progress. Through his utilization of Byzantine visual language, Warhol’s Death and Disaster works venerate victims of tragedy, moving them away from their former lives as tabloid spectacles and instead positioning them as secular icons of the twentieth century—their images memorialized as the saints and martyrs of our time.
The Anglo-Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) is known for being one of the leading representatives of historical genre painting. His paintings are often set in antiquity that usually transmits a peaceful atmosphere, although they also regularly refer to classical sources that include critical messages. Two key works of Alma-Tadema’s Pompeian period are Entrance of the theatre (1866) and An exedra (1869). These works are paradigmatic of the artist’s in-depth knowledge of classical civilization. He seemed obsessed with the historical accuracy of his paintings, which can be partly explained by the fact that general education at the time was steeped in the classics, and the public’s appreciation of his paintings must have been directly related to what was taught at school.
Through a detailed analysis in conjunction with contemporary critical reviews, the author intends to reconstruct the nineteenth-century perspective on Alma-Tadema’s work. The question is how his contemporaries may have viewed his paintings, and how the concept of the ‘period eye’, developed by Baxandall, can be of use. It turns out that, with access to these classical sources, Entrance of the theatre becomes a scathing critique of the vanity and conceit of the wealthy class. Alma-Tadema’s reference to Terence’s comedy Andria convincingly complements a social criticism depicted through a public scene at the entrance of the Small Theatre in Pompeii.
Additionally, the inscriptions and monuments that were associated with the famous family of the Holconians in particular, and theatrical patronage in Pompeii in general, must have been of particular interest to Alma-Tadema. This also emerged in An exedra, a scene around a tomb at the Via dei Sepolcri in Pompeii. The result is an image that, beyond a casual daily image from antiquity, also aims to show social injustice through the lost gaze of the enslaved person.
These paintings show how Lawrence Alma-Tadema was capable of making numerous references, by layering several meanings and suggestions taken from antiquity. They also constitute a clear example of how he used and combined all his knowledge of classical architecture and fashion available at the time, to elaborate a pictorial narrative that pointed to the core of historical reconstruction.