Abstract

This article focuses on Black representations of Greco-Roman goddesses in film and on television, exploring the historical and ideological conditions which have allowed audiences to react neutrally or favorably toward such representations. Adopting the transmedial perspective, the intersecting forces that have gradually disjointed conceptions of the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology in popular culture and imagination are considered. Such forces include nonspecialist understandings of ancient gender and its artistic interpretation, race versus colorism, and the commodity culture of cinema. Some portrayals of Black goddesses examined in this article appear in works imagineered or influenced by Disney: Hercules (1997 film, 1998–1999 animated series), The Little Mermaid (1989 film, 2008 Broadway musical) and Once Upon a Time (2011–2018 television series), whereas others appear in Syfy’s The Magicians (2015-2020 television series) and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson (2010 film and the upcoming television series). Casting Black women as Greek goddesses gradually weakens the conceptual entanglement between the Whiteness and the Greco-Roman divine, priming audiences to accept alternative representations of deities through cultural accretion.

摘要

本文重点关注电影和电视中对希腊罗马女神的黑人形象，探索允许观众对此类形象做出中立或有利反应的历史和意识形态条件。采用跨媒介的视角，考虑了在流行文化和想象中逐渐瓦解希腊神话中神和女神概念的交叉力量。这些力量包括对古代性别及其艺术诠释的非专业理解、种族与肤色歧视以及电影的商品文化。本文研究的一些黑人女神形象出现在迪士尼想象或影响的作品中：赫拉克勒斯（1997 年电影，1998-1999 年动画系列）、小美人鱼（1989 年电影，2008 年百老汇音乐剧）和黄飞鸿（2011-2018 年电视剧），而其他人则出现在 Syfy 的魔术师（2015-2020 年电视剧）和 Rick Riordan 的珀西杰克逊（2010 年电影和即将上映的电视剧）中。将黑人女性塑造成希腊女神逐渐削弱了白人与希腊罗马神灵之间的概念纠葛，促使观众通过文化积淀接受不同的神灵形象。