Journal for Religion, Film and Media (JRFM)

Call for Papers, 11/2 2025

2024-04-29T12:01:12+00:00

The autumn issue of JRFM 2025 (11/2) examines the diversity of media representations of the rich and varied world of Islamic traditions and practices.

Retraction Notice

2024-04-29T12:04:30+00:00

Retraction Notice concerning the article “The Representation of Rural Christianity in the Films of Gan Xiao’er” by Jing Li, published in: JRFM 2023, 9/2, "Here Be Dragons". East Asian Film and Religion, edited by Christian Wessely, Franz Winter and Yukihiko Yoshida.

Framing the War: THE CALVARY OF SERBIA (YU 1932/1940)

2023-09-25T07:12:02+00:00

This article examines the early documentary film of the Yugoslav space, assessing the innovative deployment of film language to communicate faith and history in the context of the First World War. The pioneering work involved in developing war cinema in the Yugoslav space has been largely overlooked by scholars. The research introduces readers to the rich heritage of such documentary film and encourages new approaches to researching history and religion through this medium. The article is a case study of the documentary film THE CALVARY OF SERBIA (GOLGOTA SRBIJE, Stanislav Krakov, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1932/1940), which was assembled from various forms of footage and is regarded as the best documentary made in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia prior to the Second World War. Incorporating different modes and codes of representation, THE CALVARY OF SERBIA is a milestone in the development of film language. How the author(s) saw and framed faith and history within the context of the war resulted in a unique cinematic space, in which on-screen and off-screen spaces are (re)negotiated. To examine the language of film is to study film as a historical document, and in this sense this article approaches film as a primary source. Its overarching goal is to advance and enrich scholarly inquiry into early cinema and to introduce novel avenues for accessing documentary film.

Book Review. Elke Pahud de Mortanges, Bodies of Memory and Grace

2024-02-20T08:50:12+00:00

Book Review of Elke Pahud de Mortanges, Bodies of Memory and Grace. Der Körper in den Erinnerungskulturen des Christentums.

Series Review. AFRICAN FOLKTALES REIMAGINED

2024-02-20T08:56:14+00:00

Series Review of AFRICAN FOLKTALES REIMAGINED (6 Episodes, Various Directors, Netflix/UNESCO 2023).

Music Review. Kesha, Gag Order

2024-02-20T09:14:55+00:00

Review of Kesha's new album Gag Order (US 2023).

Jury Review. 50 Years of the Ecumenical Jury at the Film Festival in Locarno

2024-02-20T09:02:08+00:00

Review of the work of the Ecumenical Jury at the Locarno Film Festival and its 50th anniversary 2023.

Book Review. Edith Franke / Ramona Jelinek-Menke (eds.), Handling Religious Things

2024-02-20T09:06:02+00:00

Review of Edith Franke / Ramona Jelinek-Menke (eds.), Handling Religious Things. The Material and the Social in Museums.

2024-02-20T09:19:00+00:00

The The Bible, Religion, and Power in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

2023-08-22T08:28:10+00:00

This article offers a close reading of Atwood’s famous novel from the perspective of biblical scholarship. Anyone who reads The Handmaid’s Tale will readily notice how strongly biblical texts inform the narrative and the fictional world of Gilead. This relationship begins with Genesis 30:1–3, which appears as an epigraph. Religion in all its complexity is a cornerstone of the novel. The article looks at its threefold use of religion: as a biblically based foundation of the ideology and power structures of Gilead, as an anthropological foil for the leitmotif of seeing and being seen in Offred’s story, and as a point of departure and reference for the main character’s personal reflections. The article limits itself to observations based on the novel as first published in 1985.

The Handmaid’s Tale as a Palimpsest

2023-08-29T15:31:52+00:00

The Handmaid’s Tale inhabits an imaginary space defined by biblical narratives at a time set in the near future when low fertility has reached a critical point. The solution provided by the Bible-based totalitarian regime in place in Gilead is to offer “handmaids” as surrogate mothers to members of the ruling elite. The biblical basis for this is chillingly re-enacted through the set reading of Genesis 30:1-3 preceding and legitimising the ritual rape of the household dedicated handmaiden. While this text clearly provides the rationale for addressing issues of fertility in Gilead, I will focus more specifically on how the book of Judges (specifically Judges 19-21) is marshalled to provide an implicit framework for The Handmaid ’s Tale. The paper will analyse the complex ways in which the Bible is used and abused in both the novel and the fourth series, using literary and feminist lenses. It will be argued that both narratives, the Book of Judges and Atwood’s tale contain elements of subversion and deconstruction.

Biblical Narratives in The Handmaid’s Tale

2023-05-29T18:04:11+00:00

Through her dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood fuels the debate surrounding the global plight of women. Atwood weaves many biblical concepts, names, and motifs relating to the status of women into the novel, with a particular focus on the concept of the handmaid, whose sole function is childbearing. Atwood thus warns against fundamentalist readings of the Bible and other canonical texts that are the foundations of our culture. In order to reach a fuller understanding of the contextual biblical sources of the novel, in this article I take an in-depth look at the biblical source of the name “Gilead”, as Atwood chose to set her tale in the “Republic of Gilead”. Furthermore, as the novel presents a radical social hierarchy among women based on their childbearing duties, I will also examine the biblical narratives foundational to the hegemonic male interpretation that gave rise, according to the novel, to this dystopian reality. In this terrifying novel, the transformation of women into childbearing handmaids is based both on the biblical story of the handmaids and on the proprietary relationship of men over women in the Bible. I argue that the novel’s critical approach deconstructs the unspoken assumptions of a particular way of life.

The Restrictions of Genre

2024-02-20T08:36:22+00:00

While there is a long tradition of literary utopias, there are hardly any positive utopias in film. Cinematic dystopias, by contrast, abound. The typical dystopia usually features a protagonist who is in opposition to the ruling regime, a built-in dramatic conflict that makes dystopias particularly well-suited for films. Although the huge success of Hulu’s THE HANDMAID'S TALE seems to confirm the affinity between film and dystopias, the show also highlights that a series spanning multiple seasons has very different dramaturgical demands than a feature film. Those demands are at odds with the narrative structure of a typical dystopia. While the standard rebellion plot provides the needed tension, it cannot be prolonged endlessly. Sooner or later the rebellion either succeeds or fails, at which point literary dystopias normally end. A series like The Handmaid’s Tale needs to be able to continue that plot, which is the
primary reason why the protagonist Offred never leaves Gilead despite having several opportunities to do so.

Front Matter

2024-04-29T11:04:49+00:00

"Are There Any Questions?"

2024-02-20T08:41:35+00:00

Editorial to the issue on Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale that highlights how the cross-media distribution of the novel since 1985 has helped the dystopian narrative to become a global phenomenon, and refers to its impact on socio-political discussions – not only on a visual level.