Retrospect
Journal.

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY'S HISTORY, CLASSICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE

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  • Judas and the Black Messiah (2021): Mississippi Burning and the Role of American Government in Films of the Civil Rights Era

    Written by Suzanne Elliott. Representations of Civil Rights Era law enforcement in cinema since the 1980s have been generous, emphasising a fight for justice and tolerance. In this review, Suzanne Elliott examines how Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) breaks this trend, and why such a disruption is welcome.

  • Cinema in the Age of Obama

    Written by Jess Womack. Trends within film largely mirror trends within society, mirroring political and social feeling. This can especially be seen within the ‘Obama-era’ and beyond, where historical fiction exploring the racial past of the US became popular.

  • Review: Sistersong, Lucy Holland (2021)

    Written by Melissa Kane. Lucy Holland’s Sistersong is an enchanting piece of historical fantasy that digs into early Anglo-Saxon Britain.

  • Penelope

    Writen by Hazel Atkinson. Known for her unwavering fidelity, Penelope did not lose hope that her husband, Odysseus, would return from the Trojan War, despite the decades that passed. This fictional piece relates the story through the eyes of the legendary Queen of Ithaca.

  • The Epistemic Mystery of the Cathars

    Written by Inge Erdal. A Christian sect deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and routinely persecuted, the history of the Cathars is a complicated one. With regional variations and conflicting historiography, approaching this particular moment in religious history requires an understanding of the mutability of the human experience.

  • In Greek they say ‘daimon’: Dionysus in Anne Carson’s translation of the Bakkhai

    Written by Justin Biggi. Euripides’ ‘Bakkhai’ is widely hailed as his most eminent work, with its central protagonist, Dionysus, receiving a great deal of attention in modern academia. Anne Carson’s treatment of the god in her recent translation draws attention to the ‘othering’ that has pervaded centuries of scholarship.

  • Review: Our Time is Now: Race and Modernity in Postcolonial Guatemala, Julie Gibbings (2020)

    Written by Jamie Gemmell. Dr Julie Gibbings’ 2020 work on postcolonial Guatemala offers an ambitiously broad examination of race and modernity, creating a multi-vocal historical narrative which is simultaneously complex and readable.

  • Writing Postcolonial Histories – A Conversation with Dr. Julie Gibbings

    Dr Julie Gibbings sits down with Retrospect’s Jamie Gemmell to discuss her 2020 work Our Time is Now: Race and Modernity in Postcolonial Guatemala.