ארכיון Popular culture and mass media - Page 3 of 5 - Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (PhD)

Lecture: Did God Attend the Screenings of “2001: Odyssey “in Space?

The film 2001: Odyssey in Space is known as idiosyncratic and became a cult film, however was also harchly criticized. In this lecture we argue that the filmmaker (Stanley Kubric) uses hypnotic technics in order to immerse the audience in a mystical/spiritual trance experiences. In the research we describe three such technics (the article is being prepared), while explaining the contradicting reactions to the film.

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December 5, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Mind and psychology / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Versions of Theme Design Reality Creation in New Age Culture

We create our own reality - this is a major idea in the contemporary cultural discourse. But how? From the Matrix to a magic stick, from positive psychology to mind control technics. Various lectures presented the research on this spiritual (or perhaps actually secularized) theme...

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December 5, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Mind and psychology / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Article: The Creating-Our-Reality Motif in Contemporary Western Popular Spirituality

One of the most prominent themes in the contemporary spiritual discourse, as well as in the general popular discourse, is that we are those who create our own world. This idea has various versions. For instance, the positive psychology version depicts how thoughts and expextations may create a reality through the change of behaviour; the science fiction version sees us as players in a virtual space that choose and shape their enviroment; the magical version teaches us to cast spells of reality; and more. This research analyses the popular spiritual discourse on the creation of reality, and thereby reviels a few insights on the contemporary cultural tendencies, the cultural contradictions, and the emergence of a new ethic.

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December 4, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / History / Popular culture and mass media

Lecture: The Emergent Movement of Spiritual Cinema

This lecture presents the alternative spiritual cinema world, as part of a research project that focuses on the historical emergence of this mocement in the early years of the 21st century, while adapting current characteristics, and creating a unique art different than the mainstream media and cinema.

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December 4, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Judaism and Kabbalah / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

Article: The film “Noah” (2014) as an Environmental Cinematic Midrash

The film Noah (2014) is a cinematic Midrash. What does this mean? That it creatively interprates the biblical story of Noah anew, fills in existing gaps in the story, and striving at delivering an ideological message. This article surveys the sources of inspiration integrated in the film - from the sages' midrash to Zen Buddhism stories, and explains the film creators' interpretative choises and their message.

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December 1, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / History / Judaism and Kabbalah / Myth / Popular culture and mass media / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Article: “Not Your Grandmother’s Bible”—A Comparative Study of the Biblical Deluge Myth in Film

Do you know the story of Noah and the deluge? Well, every generation had its interpretations and versions of the story. And when the deluge is retold - they actually talk of a humanity worthy of annihilation. Why? Every commentator has its own explanation, where lies criticism of the society they live in or encounter. The deluge as presented in current cinema isn't the flood as depicted in old traditions, since the story continues to evolve and get renewed. In this comparative study, we've surveyed Hollywood films that present the deluge iver the last century - in each of them the humanity is presented as facing annihilation, while offering an a current critic. Recently, for instance, the deluge myth is linked to the ecological discourse.

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November 30, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / Methodology and models / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology

Article: The Dynamics of a Cultural Struggle in Academia – The Case of New Age Music Research

The academia is a cultural player, and when it deals with a culturally controversial issue - the academic discourse actually plays a role in the cultural game and struggle between forces. This article - dealing with New Age Music - is a product of a scholarly cooperation between Omri and Marianna Ruah-Midbar, as a crossroad of their sceintific interests. It was published in Berkeley University's journal - Cultural Analysis.

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November 30, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Judaism and Kabbalah / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

Article: Worldviews in the Film “Noah” – Hedonism, Fundamentalism, and Ecofeminism

"We broke the world — we did this. Man did this. Everything that was beautiful, everything that was good, we shattered. Now, it begins again." (Noah's words, from the film) In this article we interprate the film Noah (2014), and identify various cultural/ spiritual/ religious worldviews that clash in the contemporary western society: a hedonistic-materialistic approach, religious and enviromental fundamentalism, and eco-feminism. We show how the film maker, Daren Aronofsli, express through the protagonist, Noah, the problematicalness in the various cultural stances, when the plot leads its hero thorugh a transformational process.

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November 30, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Geography / History / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

Lecture: “Between Meron and Ashkelon: The Comeback of an Old Witch-Hunt Story”

This lecture opens with the Neo-Shamanism in Israel, and presents two modes in which the local alternative spirituality approaches Judaism - positively and negatively. The lecture focuses on the demonstration of a negative connection with Judaism, in an Israeli Neo-Shaman text. The text is an alternative nrrative of a rabbinic legend of a witch hunt conducted by one of the Rabbis in Ashkelon in the days of the Hasmonean Kingdom. The text was analysed in a few publications (one in English) . The lecture took part at a conference in Zefat Academic College.

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June 1, 2022

Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Israeli Government Reports on “cults” – a critical study

A critical study of the struggle revolving "cults" in the Israeli society, through an analysis of formal Israeli reports - lectures on the subject of this research project featured in various forums (in English and Hebrew), and some articles were published in this project's framework.

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January 17, 2022