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When the Wind Blows: Planning for Nuclear War in the 1980s
Read more: When the Wind Blows: Planning for Nuclear War in the 1980sJim Gledhill on the organisation of civil defence in Scotland amidst Cold War tensions.
Finding a Language of My Own – Maya Issam Kesrouany on the Making of Modern Egyptian Literature
Much like the translators in my book (Prophetic Translation: The Making of Modern Egyptian Literature), I have also found myself speaking in languages that felt simultaneously very familiar and extremely alien. When I was in Cairo in 2006, I recognized…
An Overview of the Media Franchise – From Jaws to the Avengers
By James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim and Stephen Mamber This year marks a significant turning point for a number of recognizable media franchises: Avengers: Endgame brings several character arcs to a close within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series finale…
Screening Youth: Contemporary French and Francophone Cinema
The initial impulse for our book, Screening Youth, originated from the observation that, while the topic of youth has informed a great variety of productions over the years, little work had been done from an academic perspective to investigate this…
Film Stardom and Film-Philosophy
By Lucy Bolton This special issue of Film-Philosophy on film stardom is designed to do two things: to demonstrate the philosophical questions at the heart of many elements of studying and understanding actors as stars, and hopefully to provoke more…
Why do we call Middle Eastern dance “belly dance”?
English speakers use the term “belly dance” to describe solo, improvised dances from the Middle East and North Africa that feature intricate movements of the shoulders, chest, and hips. Where Did the Name “Belly Dance” Come From? It isn’t a…
The Art of Kharita Dispatching in the Late 19th Century Afghanistan
Kharita dispatching On 2 Ramadan 1316 AH/ 15 January 1899, Amir Abdul Rahman Khan of Afghanistan (r. 1880–1901), sent an official letter, categorised as murāsala, to Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India (in office, 1898–1911). Eventually, the ceremonially-illuminated letter…
Stick ‘em Up: How a South African Horror Film Prophesied Apartheid’s Road to Nowhere
By Calum Waddell Last year’s superior possession shocker Hereditary (from director Ari Aster) and the recent release of Jordan Peele’s Us has resulted in a new term, ‘elevated horror’, being introduced into the critical lexicon, much to the chagrin of…
Five Reasons why the Middle East Matters for World Christianity
Events such as the Arab Spring and the civil war in Syria have brought Middle Eastern Christians into the public eye in Europe and North America. Yet the academic field of World Christianity still gives little attention to the Middle…
In Memory of Michel Jeanneret
Written by Stephen Bamforth Michel Jeanneret was a great friend of Nottingham French Studies, and we were greatly saddened by the news of his death on 3 March this year. Michel was our Special Professor in the Department of French…