Description
Book SynopsisAnglo-American culture is marked by a gladiatorial impulse: a deep cultural fascination in watching men fight each other. The gladiator is an archetypal character embodying this impulse and his brand of violent and eroticised masculinity has become a cultural shorthand that signals a transhistorical version of heroic masculinity. Frequently the gladiator or celebrity fighter - from the amphitheatres of Rome to the octagon of the Ultimate Fighting Championships - is used as a way of insisting that a desire to fight, and to watch men fighting, is simply a part of our human nature. This book traces a cultural interest in stories about gladiators through twentieth and twenty-first-century film, television and videogames.
Trade ReviewSteenberg moves deftly across time, space, media and story type, interrogating the gladiator as a powerful archetype of joyous nostalgic violence. This definitive study maps cinema, genre histories and masculinity in new and thought-provoking ways: a truly spectacular achievement. -- Yvonne Tasker, Professor of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, UK
Are You Not Entertained offers a comprehensive and meticulously researched account of the figure of the gladiator across visual media. From Ancient Rome to
The Hunger Games and
The Bachelor, the volume carefully traces the contested place of the gladiator. -- Frances Smith, Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Sussex, UK
Are You Not Entertained is a brilliant, engaging, and innovative examination of the archetypal gladiator character, from its origins in Ancient Rome to its depictions in movies and other popular media, and brings timely attention to the complex intersections between gladiatorial masculinity, violence, nostalgia, and eroticism. -- Cynthia Felando, Lecturer, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Table of ContentsList of Figures, Tables and Illustrations Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction: Millennial Masculinity and the Gladiators of Y2k - “Are You Not Entertained?” 1. A Gladiatorial Genealogy: “My Name Is Gladiator” 2. Genre Play: “Playthings of the Crowd” 3. The Arena Fight: “Two Men Enter. One Man Leaves” 4. Nostalgia: “Is Rome Worth One Good Man’s Life?” 5. The Gladiatorial Burlesque: “Do You Like Movies About Gladiators?” 6. Celebrity: “Win the Crowd” Conclusion: We Were Entertained Bibliography Filmography Appendix: Arena Fight Analysis
