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    Magagnini Antonella 2nda

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    Antonella Magagnini
    The document discusses how certain elements from the Black Death era have been reinterpreted and incorporated into modern celebrations. It provides examples like the plague doctor's distinctive mask, which was originally used for sanitary purposes but is now featured in Venetian Carnival celebrations. Additionally, the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" is believed to describe symptoms of the plague but is still taught to children unaware of its origins. Elements related to witchcraft from the film like the necromancer have also been reimagined as the Halloween witch costume. The document argues that over time, human beings have shown flexibility in managing culture and history by transforming negative historical facts and objects into more positive symbols.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Magagnini Antonella 2nda

    Uploaded by

    Antonella Magagnini
    59 views3 pages
    The document discusses how certain elements from the Black Death era have been reinterpreted and incorporated into modern celebrations. It provides examples like the plague doctor's distinctive mask, which was originally used for sanitary purposes but is now featured in Venetian Carnival celebrations. Additionally, the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" is believed to describe symptoms of the plague but is still taught to children unaware of its origins. Elements related to witchcraft from the film like the necromancer have also been reimagined as the Halloween witch costume. The document argues that over time, human beings have shown flexibility in managing culture and history by transforming negative historical facts and objects into more positive symbols.

    Original Description:

    Analysis of elements in the movie Black Death

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    The document discusses how certain elements from the Black Death era have been reinterpreted and incorporated into modern celebrations. It provides examples like the plague doctor's distinctive mask, which was originally used for sanitary purposes but is now featured in Venetian Carnival celebrations. Additionally, the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" is believed to describe symptoms of the plague but is still taught to children unaware of its origins. Elements related to witchcraft from the film like the necromancer have also been reimagined as the Halloween witch costume. The document argues that over time, human beings have shown flexibility in managing culture and history by transforming negative historical facts and objects into more positive symbols.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    59 views3 pages

    Magagnini Antonella 2nda

    Uploaded by

    Antonella Magagnini
    The document discusses how certain elements from the Black Death era have been reinterpreted and incorporated into modern celebrations. It provides examples like the plague doctor's distinctive mask, which was originally used for sanitary purposes but is now featured in Venetian Carnival celebrations. Additionally, the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" is believed to describe symptoms of the plague but is still taught to children unaware of its origins. Elements related to witchcraft from the film like the necromancer have also been reimagined as the Halloween witch costume. The document argues that over time, human beings have shown flexibility in managing culture and history by transforming negative historical facts and objects into more positive symbols.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Elements in Black Death and their connection

    with their current cultural representations


    By Antonella Magagnini
    Certain elements of the film Black Death (2010) encouraged me
    to investigate their nature now and their nature in the past to see if
    there was a cause-consequence relation. It is possible to trace back
    those elements that have undergone a reformulation of their social
    meaning to serve a different purpose for us today. In a society with an
    old different mindset, these elements meant despair, hopelessness
    and terror. Undoubtedly, they have left a sad footprint in history.
    However, after suffering a curious turn of events; they have been
    reinterpreted and incorporated even into festivities people celebrate
    nowadays.
    In the film I mentioned above, there is a scene where you can
    watch the disastrous picture of bodies lying on the ground. Walking
    around the dead victims of the disease, a plague doctor appears. You
    can easily recognise him, since he uses it characteristic dreadful mask
    with a long beak. The shape of his mask was due to sanitary
    precautions; it was intended to keep a distance between the doctor
    and the patient and avoid the transmission of the disease. Curious as
    it may seem, nowadays you can see the same mask, although quite
    ornamented, in the popular Venetian Carnival, held in San Marco
    Square every year in Italy. My interest lies in the fact that this
    macabre object which represents a memento mori was recycled to be
    part

    of a celebration

    where joy and dancing are the main

    protagonists.
    The characteristic symptoms shown in the film are related to
    another element considered a product of the Black Death outbreak:
    the innocent nursery rhyme called Ring around the rosie. It is
    believed to have been created after the second outburst of the plague
    in 1603 as an artistic reaction to the devastating situation. The

    website

    www.rhymes.org.uk

    provides

    an

    explanation

    to

    this

    connection:
    The symptoms of the plague included a rosy red rash in the
    shape of a ring on the skin (Ring around the rosy). Pockets
    and pouches were filled with sweet smelling herbs (or
    posies) which were carried due to the belief that the disease
    was transmitted by bad smells. The term "Ashes Ashes"
    refers to the cremation of the dead bodies.

    It is certainly perplexing that a nursery rhyme can have this


    meanings behind. Still, people teach it and children sing it unaware of
    its origin.
    Another topic is that of superstition and witches. In a crucial
    scene of the movie, we can see how Langiva, the leader of the
    disease-free village, apparently raises Averill, Osmunds lover, from
    the dead. Osmund instantly believes what he is seeing. To him, there
    is no illusion, just plain heresy. The figure of a necromancer practicing
    witchcraft leads me to reflect on the tradition of Halloween and the
    witch costume. Once again, it is evident how much the figure of the
    witch has changed throughout time. The film provides a vivid
    depiction of the punishment for the women accused of practicing
    magic, they were either burned at stake or sent to the iron maiden.
    Today, girls are accustomed to dress as witches during Halloween
    matching the aspect of the presumed medieval witches. According to
    Malcolm Gaskill, writer of Crime and Mentalities of the Early Modern
    England, the stereotypical image of the witch appeared in the
    accounts recorded: In 1584 the Kentish gentleman Reginald Scot
    described a typical witch as `a toothles, old, impotent, and unweldie
    woman', `lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles' ;
    [](p.37) Although the purpose of the costume is scaring, its
    approach is undoubtedly more playful and lighthearted.
    After considering these surprising transformations I cannot help
    but conclude that human beings can be incredibly flexible in
    managing culture and history. And certainly, it is the work for a
    historian to disentangle these connections I presented and finally

    understand what drives a person, or a whole community, to redefine


    historical facts and objects. The feelings that each object arises now
    are the opposite in comparison from those in the past. Having this last
    idea

    in

    mind,

    can

    infer,

    from

    my

    perspective,

    that

    the

    transformations are nothing but the intention of the human being to


    look forward to a brighter future by turning the negative into the
    positive.

    Reference

    Smith, C. (Director). (2010). Black Death [Motion picture]. UK.


    Carnival of Venice. (n.d.). Retrieved from
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_of_Venice#Medico_della_peste_.

    28The_Plague_Doctor.29
    Smart Art. (2016). Venetian Masks - SMART ART HISTORY #1.

    Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVnqBaZUXNM


    NurseryRhymeHistory. (2012). Ring Around the Rosy - Meaning behind
    the Nursery Rhyme ***. Retrieved from

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaspFUkcPjo
    Alchin, L.K. Nursery Rhymes Lyrics and Origins. Ring around the Rosy
    rhyme. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from

    http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm
    Gaskill, M. (2000). The social meaning of witchcraft, 15601680. In
    Crime and mentalities in early modern England. Cambridge, UK:
    Cambridge University Press.

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