In the course of March and April 2019, I wrote seven essays on topics ranging from a supposedly blasphemous song to the relationship between subjectivity and anthropological fieldwork. Today I publish the first essay, on Robin Hardy’s 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man.
Lees verder In Pastures Green He Leadeth Me: The Reconfiguration of Space and Authority in The Wicker Man (1973)
In the first semester of 2018/19 I wrote an extensive paper on the academic study of religion and film. A condensed outline of my argument was presented at a student conference of the UvA and the UU in January 2019. I publish the full paper right here.
Lees verder Interdisciplinary Glances: the study of religion and film [Paper]
The following essay was written for the course Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion. Utrecht University & UvA, autumn & winter 2018/2019.
Lees verder Religion or ”Religion”: Universality and Particularity in Religious Studies
Ik kon het niet laten om na de aflevering van afgelopen maandag iets met de visuals en symboliek van Game of Thrones te doen. Spoilers ahead dus en veel beeldmateriaal, en voor wie de aflevering al zag: iets met een paard…
Link naar het uitgebreide stuk: klik
Lees verder Lied van Ijs en Vuur: Visuele Associaties in Game of Thrones
I recently wrote an academic book review for one of my research master courses. I took a publication of the Canadian Religious Studies scholar Douglas E. Cowan, entitled America’s Dark Theologian: the Religious Imagination of Stephen King.
Lees verder Academic Book Review: Stephen King, America’s Dark Theologian [Douglas E. Cowan]
What happens when you’re suddenly asked to write an exegesis on a particular set of biblical verses? I did so for a RMA course on Religious Texts and Interpretative Practices, and you’ll be able to find the result in this post.
Lees verder Lost in Translation: 1 Timothy 2:9-14 [Paper/Exegesis]
In the autumn of 2018, I attented the yearly conference of the NGG (Nederlands Genootschap voor Godsdienstwetenschap). The overarching theme was ‘Interpreting Rituals’. Keynote lectures and paper sessions shed a light on a broad variety of topics, challenging me and the other research master students on the spot to search for challenging perspectives. The paper that I am sharing serves as a reflection on the conference and one of its pivotal themes. I wrote it in the aftermath of the event, but the case study that I used will be the starting point for another paper on David Bowie and performativity, which I will hopefully produce this spring.
Lees verder Essay: Performing Death (NGG Conference Religious Studies, 2018)
Beroemd is het moment waarop Anna’s zoon Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom) een tank ziet passeren in het vreemde land met haar vreemde taal. Komen we ergens in Tystnaden dichterbij de wil om te begrijpen?
Klik hier voor [onder meer] een stukje over mijn favoriete film van Ingmar Bergman, Tystnaden (1963). Cine-collega’s vertellen in hetzelfde overkoepelende stuk over hun favorieten. Dit alles naar aanleiding van de Nederlandse re-release van het prachtige Fanny & Alexander, dat sinds gisteren tijdelijk in de filmhuizen draait.
Meer Bergman: Essay: Het Nabije Sterven in The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries en the Magician
The [English] paper that I submitted below is the result of my efforts for a master course on conversion. My intention has been to combine theoretical reflections on conversion [‘can you also convert to secularity?’] with a textual & formal analysis of a specific film (Kreuzweg, or Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014). I argue that this film perpetuates a rigid binary between ’the religious’ and ’the secular’ and I question the ideological implications underneath.
Lees verder Paper: Religious Sacrifice and the rejection of secular conversion in Kreuzweg
Fifty Shades-baken Dakota Johnson en kameleon Tilda Swinton zijn danstalent en dansdocent in Suspiria, de film waarvan je dacht dat de regisseur van Call Me by Your Name hem in ieder geval nooit zou maken. Het rommelige resultaat is een samenraapsel van botsende stijlimpressies en grote ideeën, onnodig belast met de erfenis van het veelgeprezen origineel.
Volledige recensie op filmvandaag
Suspiria (2018). 152 min. Regie: Luca Guadagnino. Met Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth e.a.
Suspiria draait nu in de Nederlandse zalen