21388/31388 Hittite and Hollywood
The Hollywood film studios were established in the same years that the Hittite language was deciphered, and so began two genre-building projects that have barely interacted. What do the ancient annals of the king’s military exploits have in common with Westerns like Stagecoach and The Searchers? Can we read the story of a murdered Hittite prince—who would have been the future pharaoh of Egypt—as a film noir, like The Maltese Falcon? Is a mythological text about a missing deity a better example of Hollywood film style than the musical Singin’ in the Rain? In the first course in the history of the world to compare Late Bronze Age Hittite texts and classic Hollywood genre films, we will endeavor to understand what makes a genre recognizable across time, culture, and medium. Topics we will explore include storytelling through text and image, reception, literary and film style, adaptations, and what makes a “classic”. We will dive into Hittite texts in translation, watch Hollywood films, and consult literary and film theory.