The continuity of myth in cinema: Re-signifying Norse mythology within the framework of cultural memory and industry

Authors : Serap Sarıbaş

Pages : 62-76

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Publication Date : 2025-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study argues that Norse mythology, in contemporary film and television productions, is not merely a “narrative source” but a living narrative form that is continually reshaped, transformed, and adapted to present-day cultural contexts by the aesthetic, narrative, and ideological dynamics of the cinema industry. The central thesis of the study is that myth is not transmitted passively in cinema; rather, it is actively transformed through production context and cinematic language. Different modes of production, European art cinema, Hollywood blockbusters (high-budget commercial films), and long-form streaming dramas (online platform series), determine which themes are reconfigured, which character typologies are foregrounded, and which ideological orientations are embedded in the narrative. The audiovisual tools of cinema, colour palette, cinematography, music, and editing, can enhance the ritual dimension of myth or turn it into humorous or ironic rewritings. The reproduction of myth on screen operates not only at the narrative level but also as a multilayered process shaping audience perception, cultural identity construction, and the global circulation of culture. In this respect, myths reimagined through cinema occupy the intersection of historical continuity and contemporary aesthetic and ideological transformations. In this process, myth becomes both a vehicle of cultural memory and a narrative arena for current issues such as gender, ecology, and identity. The “life of myth in cinema” thus materialises as an ongoing practice of resignification, through which ancestral cosmologies are continually reconfigured to address contemporary anxieties and to inscribe new cultural meanings.
Keywords : Sinema, Norse mitolojisi, kültürel bellek, mit uyarlaması

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