Oskar Aguado Cantabrana - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Doctoral thesis by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
War has been one of the most recurring themes in films and TV series set in ancient Rome. However... more War has been one of the most recurring themes in films and TV series set in ancient Rome. However, despite the abundance of studies on film and Ancient History, there does not yet exist an in-depth, systematic, independent and comprehensive analysis of the cinematic reception of warfare and the Roman army. The present doctoral thesis aims to explore this phenomenon, paying special attention to the productions of the 21st century, drawing on a corpus of film and television sources comprised of the following titles: Gladiator (Scott, 2000), Julius Caesar (TNT, 2002), Spartacus (USA Network, 2004), Rome (HBO, 2005-2007), Centurion (Marshall, 2010), The Eagle (Macdonald, 2011), Spartacus: Vengeance (STARZ, 2012) y Spartacus: War of the Damned (STARZ, 2013), Risen (Reynolds, 2016) y Ben-Hur (Bekmambetov, 2016).
This research has been divided into three sections using the terminology of the cinematographic world: exposition, rising action and climax. The first section, comprising the first two chapters, provides a comprehensive review of the literature, giving an outline of the various lines of research adopted by studies on history and cinema, classical reception studies and works dealing with antiquity —and Rome in particular— through cinema. Chapter two covers the historiographical production on warfare and the Roman army from the beginnings of the research to the most current lines of thought, underlining milestones such as the turn known as ‘the face of battle’.
The second section contains the third and fourth chapters. Chapter three further explores what is known as ‘Roman cinema’ as a source, analysing the historical trajectory of this genre, its primary characteristics and its ways of projecting history. In chapter four, a historical and cinematographic context is provided for each of the films and series analysed, through a series of sub-sections adhering to the chronological criteria of ancient Roman wars.
Finally, the last section contains the three chapters central to this study. Chapter five looks at a series of analogies and parallels found between the image of Roman war and a given production’s contemporary context. The concept of war and the ideal of peace, while presented as Roman, are a reflection of contemporary concerns and values in a world marked by events like the “Global War against Terrorism”. Chapter six analyses the face of Roman battle, with emphasis on the portrayal of the personal experience of the legionary in combat. A description is given of the cinematographic techniques used to recreate the bloodiest aspects of battle and how all of this results in a much more humanised image of the Roman soldier in comparison with that portrayed by classic films of the genre. Lastly, chapter seven tackles the representation of the Roman triumph on screen, examining its degree of historical accuracy, as well as the extremely militarised aesthetic it has gained from certain contemporary visual references.
Papers by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
Civiltà Romana. Rivistapluridisciplinare di studi su Roma antica e le sue interpretazioni, 2024
Latina (1870-2020) (PID2020-113314GB-I00) e nel gruppo di ricerca della UPV/EHU "GIU21/009". La r... more Latina (1870-2020) (PID2020-113314GB-I00) e nel gruppo di ricerca della UPV/EHU "GIU21/009". La ricerca è stata realizzata nella cornice di un contratto postdottorale di "Perfeccionamiento de Personal Investigador doctor" (2022) del Governo basco, durante un soggiorno di ricerca presso la "Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma" (EEHAR-CSIC). Vorrei ringraziare Flavia De Camillis per il suo aiuto nella redazione del testo in italiano. 2 Gli altri tre sono The Romans (1965), The Fires of Pompeii (2008) e The Pandorica Opens (2010). Vd. F. Hobden, History meets fiction in Doctor Who, 'The Fires of Pompeii': a BBC reception of ancient Rome on screen and online, in «Greece & Rome», 56 (2009), 2, pp. 147-163. In un articolo inedito, il mio collega David Serrano Lozano ha studiato in chiave comparativa la ricezione dell'antica Roma nei quattri episodi. Lo ringrazio per aver condiviso con me le sue riflessioni sull'ultimo di questi.
Resumen: El cine de romanos, desde sus inicios, ha mostrado una imagen violenta y decadente de la... more Resumen: El cine de romanos, desde sus inicios, ha mostrado una imagen violenta y decadente de la antigua Roma, en la cual los espectáculos de gladiadores han tenido un papel importante. En el presente trabajo nos proponemos, por un lado, analizar la violencia de los munera gladiatoria recreada en la pantalla en relación con las fuentes antiguas, y por otro, intentar concretar qué tipo de analogías se pueden establecer entre esa violencia gladiatoria y el contexto político-ideológico o económico-social en el que surge cada película.
Abstract: Roman films, since their inception, have shown a violent and decadent image of ancient Rome, in which gladiatorial spectacles have played an important role. On the one hand, this paper will analyze the violence of munera gladiatoria recreated on screen in relation to ancient sources; on the other hand, we try to specify what kind of analogies are possible to establish between this gladia-torial violence and the specific ideological-political and social-economic context in which each film was released.
Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema that has been developed ... more Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema that has been developed over the past few years, there are quite few works that provide some information about the cinematographic representation of the Roman army. Trying to correct partly this empty space, we will analyse how the discipline in the Roman army has been presented on the screen. On the one and, it will be analysed how accurate these representations are according to Classic literature, and, on the other hand, focusing on the reception phenomenon, it will also be studied what kind of contemporary concerns and values the film show about this topic.
The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict in which maritime privateers, especially Basque, weighed h... more The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict in which maritime privateers, especially Basque, weighed heavily. This work
aims to focus the study of privateering practices prevailing in the Lordship of Biscay between 1739 and 1748, on the central axis of the work of the frigate Nuestra Señora de Begoña y San Jose alias Marte Vizcaíno.
Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema during the last years, t... more Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema during the last years, the cinematographic representation of the Roman Army has not been studied. But the historical films about Rome have been a genre closely linked with warfare, so the Roman army always has been a main element within these films. Through the analysis of some recent productions such as Centurion (Marshall, 2010) or Eagle of the Ninth (Macdonald, 2011) and classic films like Spartacus (Kubrick, 1960) or The fall of the Roman Empire (Mann, 1964), this article will try to review the level of historical veracity of the cinematographic representation of this army. Moreover, focusing on the reception phenomenon, it will be analysed what contemporary concerns reflect this representation.
Book chapters by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
Maria G. Castello, Irene Berti, Carla Scilabra (eds.), Ancient Violence in Modern Imagination. The Fear and the Fury, London, Bloomsbury, 2020
This paper analyzed how since the release of Gladiator (2000), Roman Epic films, along with certa... more This paper analyzed how since the release of Gladiator (2000), Roman Epic films, along with certain TV series, have portrayed battles following the Hollywood aesthetic of visceral and hyperrealist violence, while simultaneously focusing to a large degree on the soldier’s perspective. For a more in-depth understanding of these cinematic depictions of ‘the face of Roman battle’, a revision of scholarly works that focuses on this approach is necessary, as well as a comparative analysis of the imagery of battles in recent Roman Epic films and series to those of previous films of the genre, along with other war films. This chapter will thus attempt to answer the question of to what extent these depictions are influenced by scholarly research – the ‘face of battle approach’ – as well as by Hollywood’s conventions and the contemporary context in which each production is created.
La guerra de la Antigüedad en el cine, 2019
Book Reviews by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
Reseña del libro: Unceta Gómez, Luis y Sánchez Pérez, Carlos (eds.): En los márgenes de Roma. La ... more Reseña del libro: Unceta Gómez, Luis y Sánchez Pérez, Carlos (eds.): En los márgenes de Roma. La Antigüedad romana en la cultura de masas contemporánea. Madrid: UAM Ediciones / Los Libros de la Catarata, 2019, 302 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-9097-869-6]
Publicada en Studia Historica, Historia Antigua, nº38 (2020), pp. 384-391
https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/0213-2052/article/view/24389/23142
Conferences reviews by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
Talks by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
Comunicación presentada en el IV Congreso Cine y Humanidades: la pantalla en guerra (Universidad ... more Comunicación presentada en el IV Congreso Cine y Humanidades: la pantalla en guerra (Universidad de Cádiz, 20-21-22 de marzo de 2019)
Comunicación presentada en la jornada Erase una vez...la Antigüedad (UAM, 12-13 de enero de 2013)
Comunicación presentada en el Jornada Internacional de Investigación en Ciencias de la Antigüedad... more Comunicación presentada en el Jornada Internacional de Investigación en Ciencias de la Antigüedad (Universidad de Cantabria, 19 de junio de 2017)
Conferences / seminars organization by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
Bajo el título Antigüedad e identidades colectivas: desde el Medievo hasta al Mundo Contemporáneo... more Bajo el título Antigüedad e identidades colectivas: desde el Medievo hasta al Mundo Contemporáneo, el IV SHRA – II Jornada de Jóvenes Investigadores ANIHO se propone analizar el papel de la Antigüedad, especialmente la greco-latina, pero también próximo oriental y protohistórica, en la conformación política y cultural de las identidades colectivas, tanto en los procesos de construcción de las naciones modernas como en la concepción y definición de las colectividades prenacionales. En este sentido, la jornada se centrará en la temática abordada por el proyecto ANIHO, pero sin limitarse exclusivamente al mundo contemporáneo, por lo que se aceptarán también propuestas que aborden el recurso a la Antigüedad en el proceso de formación de identidades en épocas Medieval y Moderna.
Más información: https://aniho.hypotheses.org/459
Under the title Antiquity and collective identities: from The Middle Ages to the Contemporary World, the II ANIHO Young Researchers’ Conference – IV SHRA intends to analyse the role played by Classical Antiquity (but also Near Eastern and Protohistoric), in the political and cultural development of collective identities, both in the construction of modern nations and in the conception and definition of pre-national communities. In this regard, the conference will focus on the theme tackled by the ANIHO-ANIWEH project, but without limiting itself exclusively to the contemporary world. Consequently, proposals which deal with this use of Antiquity in Medieval and Modern times will also be accepted.
More information: https://aniho.hypotheses.org/459
Blog posts by Oskar Aguado Cantabrana
Barbarians raid the Capitol while Nero sets Washington ablaze
https://aniho.hypotheses.org/2178
Los bárbaros asaltan el Capitolio mientras Nerón incendia Washington
https://aniho.hypotheses.org/2075
El «efecto Gladiator» 20 años después: cine “de romanos”, Champions, memes y extrema derecha
Entrada completa de blog: https://aniho.hypotheses.org/2012
War has been one of the most recurring themes in films and TV series set in ancient Rome. However... more War has been one of the most recurring themes in films and TV series set in ancient Rome. However, despite the abundance of studies on film and Ancient History, there does not yet exist an in-depth, systematic, independent and comprehensive analysis of the cinematic reception of warfare and the Roman army. The present doctoral thesis aims to explore this phenomenon, paying special attention to the productions of the 21st century, drawing on a corpus of film and television sources comprised of the following titles: Gladiator (Scott, 2000), Julius Caesar (TNT, 2002), Spartacus (USA Network, 2004), Rome (HBO, 2005-2007), Centurion (Marshall, 2010), The Eagle (Macdonald, 2011), Spartacus: Vengeance (STARZ, 2012) y Spartacus: War of the Damned (STARZ, 2013), Risen (Reynolds, 2016) y Ben-Hur (Bekmambetov, 2016).
This research has been divided into three sections using the terminology of the cinematographic world: exposition, rising action and climax. The first section, comprising the first two chapters, provides a comprehensive review of the literature, giving an outline of the various lines of research adopted by studies on history and cinema, classical reception studies and works dealing with antiquity —and Rome in particular— through cinema. Chapter two covers the historiographical production on warfare and the Roman army from the beginnings of the research to the most current lines of thought, underlining milestones such as the turn known as ‘the face of battle’.
The second section contains the third and fourth chapters. Chapter three further explores what is known as ‘Roman cinema’ as a source, analysing the historical trajectory of this genre, its primary characteristics and its ways of projecting history. In chapter four, a historical and cinematographic context is provided for each of the films and series analysed, through a series of sub-sections adhering to the chronological criteria of ancient Roman wars.
Finally, the last section contains the three chapters central to this study. Chapter five looks at a series of analogies and parallels found between the image of Roman war and a given production’s contemporary context. The concept of war and the ideal of peace, while presented as Roman, are a reflection of contemporary concerns and values in a world marked by events like the “Global War against Terrorism”. Chapter six analyses the face of Roman battle, with emphasis on the portrayal of the personal experience of the legionary in combat. A description is given of the cinematographic techniques used to recreate the bloodiest aspects of battle and how all of this results in a much more humanised image of the Roman soldier in comparison with that portrayed by classic films of the genre. Lastly, chapter seven tackles the representation of the Roman triumph on screen, examining its degree of historical accuracy, as well as the extremely militarised aesthetic it has gained from certain contemporary visual references.
Civiltà Romana. Rivistapluridisciplinare di studi su Roma antica e le sue interpretazioni, 2024
Latina (1870-2020) (PID2020-113314GB-I00) e nel gruppo di ricerca della UPV/EHU "GIU21/009". La r... more Latina (1870-2020) (PID2020-113314GB-I00) e nel gruppo di ricerca della UPV/EHU "GIU21/009". La ricerca è stata realizzata nella cornice di un contratto postdottorale di "Perfeccionamiento de Personal Investigador doctor" (2022) del Governo basco, durante un soggiorno di ricerca presso la "Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma" (EEHAR-CSIC). Vorrei ringraziare Flavia De Camillis per il suo aiuto nella redazione del testo in italiano. 2 Gli altri tre sono The Romans (1965), The Fires of Pompeii (2008) e The Pandorica Opens (2010). Vd. F. Hobden, History meets fiction in Doctor Who, 'The Fires of Pompeii': a BBC reception of ancient Rome on screen and online, in «Greece & Rome», 56 (2009), 2, pp. 147-163. In un articolo inedito, il mio collega David Serrano Lozano ha studiato in chiave comparativa la ricezione dell'antica Roma nei quattri episodi. Lo ringrazio per aver condiviso con me le sue riflessioni sull'ultimo di questi.
Resumen: El cine de romanos, desde sus inicios, ha mostrado una imagen violenta y decadente de la... more Resumen: El cine de romanos, desde sus inicios, ha mostrado una imagen violenta y decadente de la antigua Roma, en la cual los espectáculos de gladiadores han tenido un papel importante. En el presente trabajo nos proponemos, por un lado, analizar la violencia de los munera gladiatoria recreada en la pantalla en relación con las fuentes antiguas, y por otro, intentar concretar qué tipo de analogías se pueden establecer entre esa violencia gladiatoria y el contexto político-ideológico o económico-social en el que surge cada película.
Abstract: Roman films, since their inception, have shown a violent and decadent image of ancient Rome, in which gladiatorial spectacles have played an important role. On the one hand, this paper will analyze the violence of munera gladiatoria recreated on screen in relation to ancient sources; on the other hand, we try to specify what kind of analogies are possible to establish between this gladia-torial violence and the specific ideological-political and social-economic context in which each film was released.
Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema that has been developed ... more Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema that has been developed over the past few years, there are quite few works that provide some information about the cinematographic representation of the Roman army. Trying to correct partly this empty space, we will analyse how the discipline in the Roman army has been presented on the screen. On the one and, it will be analysed how accurate these representations are according to Classic literature, and, on the other hand, focusing on the reception phenomenon, it will also be studied what kind of contemporary concerns and values the film show about this topic.
The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict in which maritime privateers, especially Basque, weighed h... more The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict in which maritime privateers, especially Basque, weighed heavily. This work
aims to focus the study of privateering practices prevailing in the Lordship of Biscay between 1739 and 1748, on the central axis of the work of the frigate Nuestra Señora de Begoña y San Jose alias Marte Vizcaíno.
Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema during the last years, t... more Despite of the proliferation of studies about Ancient History and cinema during the last years, the cinematographic representation of the Roman Army has not been studied. But the historical films about Rome have been a genre closely linked with warfare, so the Roman army always has been a main element within these films. Through the analysis of some recent productions such as Centurion (Marshall, 2010) or Eagle of the Ninth (Macdonald, 2011) and classic films like Spartacus (Kubrick, 1960) or The fall of the Roman Empire (Mann, 1964), this article will try to review the level of historical veracity of the cinematographic representation of this army. Moreover, focusing on the reception phenomenon, it will be analysed what contemporary concerns reflect this representation.
Maria G. Castello, Irene Berti, Carla Scilabra (eds.), Ancient Violence in Modern Imagination. The Fear and the Fury, London, Bloomsbury, 2020
This paper analyzed how since the release of Gladiator (2000), Roman Epic films, along with certa... more This paper analyzed how since the release of Gladiator (2000), Roman Epic films, along with certain TV series, have portrayed battles following the Hollywood aesthetic of visceral and hyperrealist violence, while simultaneously focusing to a large degree on the soldier’s perspective. For a more in-depth understanding of these cinematic depictions of ‘the face of Roman battle’, a revision of scholarly works that focuses on this approach is necessary, as well as a comparative analysis of the imagery of battles in recent Roman Epic films and series to those of previous films of the genre, along with other war films. This chapter will thus attempt to answer the question of to what extent these depictions are influenced by scholarly research – the ‘face of battle approach’ – as well as by Hollywood’s conventions and the contemporary context in which each production is created.
La guerra de la Antigüedad en el cine, 2019
Reseña del libro: Unceta Gómez, Luis y Sánchez Pérez, Carlos (eds.): En los márgenes de Roma. La ... more Reseña del libro: Unceta Gómez, Luis y Sánchez Pérez, Carlos (eds.): En los márgenes de Roma. La Antigüedad romana en la cultura de masas contemporánea. Madrid: UAM Ediciones / Los Libros de la Catarata, 2019, 302 pp. [ISBN: 978-84-9097-869-6]
Publicada en Studia Historica, Historia Antigua, nº38 (2020), pp. 384-391
https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/0213-2052/article/view/24389/23142
Comunicación presentada en el IV Congreso Cine y Humanidades: la pantalla en guerra (Universidad ... more Comunicación presentada en el IV Congreso Cine y Humanidades: la pantalla en guerra (Universidad de Cádiz, 20-21-22 de marzo de 2019)
Comunicación presentada en la jornada Erase una vez...la Antigüedad (UAM, 12-13 de enero de 2013)
Comunicación presentada en el Jornada Internacional de Investigación en Ciencias de la Antigüedad... more Comunicación presentada en el Jornada Internacional de Investigación en Ciencias de la Antigüedad (Universidad de Cantabria, 19 de junio de 2017)
Bajo el título Antigüedad e identidades colectivas: desde el Medievo hasta al Mundo Contemporáneo... more Bajo el título Antigüedad e identidades colectivas: desde el Medievo hasta al Mundo Contemporáneo, el IV SHRA – II Jornada de Jóvenes Investigadores ANIHO se propone analizar el papel de la Antigüedad, especialmente la greco-latina, pero también próximo oriental y protohistórica, en la conformación política y cultural de las identidades colectivas, tanto en los procesos de construcción de las naciones modernas como en la concepción y definición de las colectividades prenacionales. En este sentido, la jornada se centrará en la temática abordada por el proyecto ANIHO, pero sin limitarse exclusivamente al mundo contemporáneo, por lo que se aceptarán también propuestas que aborden el recurso a la Antigüedad en el proceso de formación de identidades en épocas Medieval y Moderna.
Más información: https://aniho.hypotheses.org/459
Under the title Antiquity and collective identities: from The Middle Ages to the Contemporary World, the II ANIHO Young Researchers’ Conference – IV SHRA intends to analyse the role played by Classical Antiquity (but also Near Eastern and Protohistoric), in the political and cultural development of collective identities, both in the construction of modern nations and in the conception and definition of pre-national communities. In this regard, the conference will focus on the theme tackled by the ANIHO-ANIWEH project, but without limiting itself exclusively to the contemporary world. Consequently, proposals which deal with this use of Antiquity in Medieval and Modern times will also be accepted.
More information: https://aniho.hypotheses.org/459
Barbarians raid the Capitol while Nero sets Washington ablaze
https://aniho.hypotheses.org/2178
Los bárbaros asaltan el Capitolio mientras Nerón incendia Washington
https://aniho.hypotheses.org/2075
El «efecto Gladiator» 20 años después: cine “de romanos”, Champions, memes y extrema derecha
Entrada completa de blog: https://aniho.hypotheses.org/2012
Filmando el rostro de la batalla romana: la humanización del legionario en el cine
Coronavirus: mejor con humor y recepción clásica
Entrada completa de blog: https://aniho.hypotheses.org/1962
De Cabiria (1914) a La Legión del Águila (2011): la recepción contemporánea del ejército romano a través del Séptimo Arte
Como conmemoración del 20 aniversario del estreno de la película Gladiator (2000), he recogido un... more Como conmemoración del 20 aniversario del estreno de la película Gladiator (2000), he recogido un exhaustivo listado bibliográfico que contiene gran parte de la producción académica sobre la película.
In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Gladiator (2000), I have compiled an exhaustive bibliographic list that contains much of the academic production on the film.
Del clasicismo de élite al clasicismo de masas, 2022
Los trabajos aquí reunidos pretenden reflejar la evolución que recoge el título del libro desde d... more Los trabajos aquí reunidos pretenden reflejar la evolución que recoge el título del libro desde diferentes estudios de caso. Todos los colaboradores en este volumen comparten el interés de esta ampliación de la recepción a nuevos campos, nuevos temas y nuevos medios, algo que conlleva inmediatamente la apertura, de enorme interés, a nuevos sectores y nuevos públicos. Se comparte igualmente la superación de la tradicional y jerarquizada distinción entre 'alta cultura' y 'cultura popular' para asumir la realidad innegable de una recepción de la Antigüedad integrada en la cultura de masas, fenómeno indisociable desde hace tiempo de nuestras modernas sociedades. En ese sentido, nuestra condición de estudiosos y estudiosas de la presencia de la Antigüedad en la modernidad desde una mirada crítica y desprejuiciada nos hace acercarnos con renovado interés a este mundo nuevo. Aceptamos como algo positivo y lleno de potencialidades interesantes para la nueva disciplina que compartimos ese 'democratic turn', ese 'giro democrático' del que hablan Lorna Hardwick y Stephen Harrison y, siendo conscientes al mismo tiempo de las limitaciones y dificultades que rodean a este campo de estudios, lo asumimos como un reto de futuro.