Vanished Circumstance: Titanic,heritage, and film |
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Authors: | Fiona Terry-Chandler |
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Abstract: | James Cameron's 1997 Hollywood blockbuster Titanic broke box-office records. This article argues that one explanation of this success was that Titanic is a heritage film which held a powerful attraction to audiences steeped in a contemporary heritage culture. Sections of the public are attracted to heritage and crave its illusory evocation of a retrievable and meaningful past. Titanic embodies this and several other heritage traits: the idea of the 'time capsule'; a cult of authenticity; presentism; a time-tunnel syndrome; and the film's picturesque and sublime aesthetic, all of which combine in an explicit articulation of a heritage ethos. |
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Keywords: | Authenticity Cameron Heritage History Representation Titanic |
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