The influences behind The Last Days of Disco

1998

The Last Days of Disco

Film by Whit Stillman

American independent cinema. United States. In English.

Whit Stillman's 1998 comedy of manners follows two young Manhattan publishing assistants, Alice and Charlotte, and the men around them at an exclusive disco in the early 1980s as the scene collapses. It completes the loose trilogy begun with Metropolitan and Barcelona and joins Austen-style social comedy to an elegy for a vanished nightlife.

Where it came from

Where to watch

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1814

Mansfield Park

Jane Austen

Regency. England. Written in English.

Novel of the poor, principled Fanny Price among her wealthy cousins and the worldly Crawford siblings.

What it handed down

To The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Stillman's comedies are routinely read as Austen transposed to modern Manhattan, and he later adapted Austen's Lady Susan as Love & Friendship. In Last Days the quiet, scrupulous Alice and the brittle, manipulative Charlotte play out a contrast close to Fanny Price and Mary Crawford.

To Metropolitan

Direct source, well documented.

Metropolitan explicitly discusses Mansfield Park: Audrey defends the novel and Fanny Price, while Tom admits he knows it only through Lionel Trilling's essay. The film's plot of a modest, steadfast girl and a lofty young man misled by a more worldly rival echoes Austen's novel.

Where it came from

Find “Mansfield Park” on Amazon

1785

The Task

William Cowper

Georgian. England. Written in English.

Long blank-verse poem of rural retirement, nature and religious reflection.

What it handed down

To Mansfield Park (1814)

Direct source, well documented.

Fanny Price quotes Cowper's line 'Ye fallen avenues, once more I mourn your fate unmerited' when Mr. Rushworth plans to cut down the avenue at Sotherton. Austen's brother Henry named Cowper as one of her favorite poets, and The Task's values of rural retirement and conscience shape Fanny.

Where it came from

Paradise Lost, John Milton 1667

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1667

Paradise Lost

John Milton

Restoration. England. Written in English.

Blank-verse epic of the fall of Satan and of Adam and Eve.

What it handed down

To The Task (1785)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Cowper wrote The Task in Miltonic blank verse and later translated Milton's Latin poems. His meditative digressions and syntax follow Milton's long verse paragraphs.

Where it came from

Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Psalms), Anonymous c. 10th-2nd century BCE
Aeneid, Virgil c. 19 BCE follow this thread
Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE follow this thread
The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri c. 1308-1320 follow this thread

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c. 10th-2nd century BCE

Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Psalms)

Anonymous

Iron Age to Second Temple. Ancient Israel and Judah. Written in Hebrew.

Scriptures of ancient Israel, including the creation and fall in Genesis and the Psalms.

What it handed down

To Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded

Direct source, well documented.

While imprisoned, Pamela rewrites Psalm 137, 'By the rivers of Babylon', as a verse lament about her captivity. Her letters are steeped in scriptural language and Protestant self-examination.

To Pensées

Direct source, well documented.

Whole sections of the Pensées treat Old Testament prophecy and the history of the Jews as evidence for Christianity. Pascal quotes Genesis, Psalms and the prophets throughout.

To Paradise Lost (1667)

Direct source, well documented.

Milton's epic expands the first chapters of Genesis, the creation and fall of Adam and Eve, into twelve books. Biblical phrasing and episodes run through the whole poem.

To Confessions

Direct source, well documented.

The Confessions are addressed to God largely in the words of the Psalms, which Augustine quotes on nearly every page. Book 9 describes his reading of Psalm 4 after his conversion.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

Find “Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Psalms)” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Last Days of Disco (1998)

To Metropolitan

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Mansfield Park (1814)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Task (1785)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded

To Pensées

To Paradise Lost (1667)

To Confessions

Where it came from

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