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The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal

Dissertation (MA (Drama and Film Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2019.

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Other Authors: Broodryk, Chris Willem
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Broodryk, Chris Willem
author_browse Broodryk, Chris Willem
author_facet Broodryk, Chris Willem
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MA (Drama and Film Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2019.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
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license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
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publisher University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/81922 The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal Broodryk, Chris Willem denejvrb@gmail.com Janse van Rensburg, Dené UCTD Television Drama and Film Studies Dissertation (MA (Drama and Film Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2019. This study proposes that the television series Hannibal (Fuller 2013-2015), with its aesthetic and thematic emphasis on Christian motifs and imagery, is a contemporary apocalyptic fiction. Specifically, this study argues that Hannibal provides a new typology: the metamythic apocalypse narrative. To posit these arguments, I approach the analysis of the television text from four of the stronger concepts that surface in the reading of Hannibal, which are the relationship between cannibalism and divinity, the God-Devil opposition, the We(i)ndigo figure as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, and the Apocalyptic narrative. The first three concepts inform the typology of apocalyptic narrative that the series follows and are essential in establishing the criteria for this new typology. Insofar as existing television tropes and conventions go, the first two seasons of Hannibal remain in the vicinity of investigative police procedure, building and perfecting its mythos around the passive- aggressive relationship between Lecter and his prodigy, FBI profiling consultant Will Graham. The procedural formalities are set aside in season three, to focus on and amplify an already ambivalent relationship with religion, providing a wealth of apocalyptic symbolism that calls the rest of the series into the new framework of apocalyptic fiction. This study establishes that Hannibal provides a new apocalyptic narrative typology that challenges the two typologies identified by Conrad Ostwalt (2011:365-356) – the traditional apocalypse and the secular apocalypse. The traditional apocalypse allows for fictionalized events, but includes elements of supernatural (or divine) revelation. The secular apocalypse borrows symbols and themes from the traditional apocalypse, but contemporizes evil and does not adhere to the criterion of a divine agency, positing human heroism as the anthropocentric replacement for God and averting punishment and destruction. Hannibal’s (Fuller 2013-2015) particular symbolic visual vocabulary and the apocalyptic narrative typologies outlined by Ostwalt (2011) allows me to theorise the notion of the metamythic apocalypse narrative. In establishing this new form of apocalypse narrative, I interrogate the role of the We(i)ndigo figure as Hannibal’s reconstitution of the Christian Holy Trinity and demonstrate visually how these three characters constitute this trinity – Dr Hannibal Lecter (Holy Father), Will Graham (Holy Son), and Abigail Hobbs (Holy Spirit). This metamythic apocalypse narrative engages the current secular scientific concern for the end of the world, which remains haunted by religious prophecy. The metamythic apocalypse proposes a return to the symbolic and the archetypal in answering questions about the future amidst the anxieties about the end of the world, as well as the possibility of the post- apocalyptic. Keywords: Hannibal; cannibalism; We(i)ndigo; apocalypse narrative; metamythic apocalypse; symbolism; Holy Trinity Drama MA (Drama and Film Studies) Unrestricted 2021-09-21T06:31:32Z 2021-09-21T06:31:32Z 2019-09-04 2019 Dissertation Janse van Rensburg, D 2019, The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal, MA (Drama and Film Studies) Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/81922> S2019 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/81922 en © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Television
Drama and Film Studies
The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal
title The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal
title_full The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal
title_fullStr The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal
title_full_unstemmed The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal
title_short The Lamb's Wrath : Cannibalism, Divinity, and Apocalypse in Hannibal
title_sort lamb s wrath cannibalism divinity and apocalypse in hannibal
topic UCTD
Television
Drama and Film Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/81922