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Returning again. Resurrection narratives and afterlife aesthetics in contemporary television drama
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Hodkinson, James R. (2020) Returning again. Resurrection narratives and afterlife aesthetics in contemporary television drama. Poetics Today, 41 (3). pp. 395-416. doi:10.1215/03335372-8519642 ISSN 0333-5372.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1215/03335372-8519642
Abstract
This article examines the return of the dead to life in two television drama series of the last decade, Les Revenants (The Returned; 2012–15, Canal) and Glitch (2015–19, ABC Studios). The returning dead do not figure as classic undead figures, as ghosts or zombies, instead returning to life exactly as they were at the point of death and in search of a renewed purpose and an ultimate destiny. This, the article suggests, can constitute a form of latter-day resurrection. The article shows how both series present established religion as incapable of recognizing the return of the dead, while science and the secular state are also never wholly able to explain and manage these apparent miracles. The return of this seemingly religious trope to an ostensibly secular world and the mutual jostling and overlapping of theological, scientific, and aesthetic discourses, as they seek to represent and explain the mystery, not only constitutes a postsecular theme but also occasions the search, at times inherent to artistic form, at times explicit and self-reflexive, for an appropriately postsecular televisual aesthetics.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BT Doctrinal Theology P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > School of Modern Languages and Cultures | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Resurrection in motion pictures, Horror television programs, Future life in motion pictures , Death in motion pictures, Postsecularism , Eschatology | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Poetics Today | ||||||
| Publisher: | Duke University Press | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0333-5372 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 1 September 2020 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 41 | ||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 395-416 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1215/03335372-8519642 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Copyright Holders: | © Duke University Press 2020 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 3 April 2020 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 3 April 2020 | ||||||
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