Heavy Metal & Global Premodernity II online conference, hosted by Miami University, 15-17 March 2024
Full conference program:
sites.miamioh.edu/heavy-metal...
"'Historical Consciousness and the Reception of Classical Antiquity in Heavy Metal"
-Ingrid Cristini Kroich Frandji, Universidade Estadual do Paraná
Abstract:
Reception Studies focus in highlighting the intertextuality between ancient past and the ways which it is discussed in the 21th century. In this sense, any cultural product, even thought talking about Ancient History, reproduces interests and even prejudices from the moment it’s created. When it comes to Heavy Metal, the reception of Antiquity is complex, since it’s visual (album covers), textual (lyrics), and musical. It also creates new meanings about this past, which will be understood in different ways by music fans. This paper seeks to articulate the different attributions of the meaning of Classical Antiquity in the Heavy Metal subculture to the concept of historical consciousness, developed by the German historian Jorn Rüsen. Understanding the different forms of production of History - including those of cultural products - as mobilizing a specific perception of time, the concept of Historical Consciousness can help in understanding the different meanings attributed to Ancient History and Classical Antiquity.
To this end, albums that have Classical Antiquity as their primary theme will be selected, and these will be analyzed based on the typologies of historical consciousness presented by Rüsen - Traditional, Exemplary, Critical and Genetic. From these typologies, it is possible to articulate the reception and readings of Classical Antiquity in Heavy Metal with perspectives on temporality and the function of History, emphasizing the different meanings of Antiquity in attributing meaning to the experience lived in time.
Biography:
Ingrid Cristini Kroich Frandji is a Lecturer at State University of Paraná, Brazil. She holds a PhD in History from the Federal University of Paraná, with a thesis on female agency, family and emotions in Roman Egypt. Besides Roman Egypt, she has always been interested in how ideas about Greco-Roman culture shaped the modern world. She leads a research project about receptions of Antiquity in the 21s century, and she was part of Antiga e Conexões, a project about receptions of Antiquity in the modern world. With that, she united her passion for Heavy Metal (started in her teenage years while listening to Black Sabbath) and reception studies. Her main research focus in masculinities and historical consciousness in the appropriations of Greco-Roman Antiquity within Heavy Metal culture. She is also a dog lover and will always be happy to see a picture of your dog.