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- Title
Citizen Kane and the Quest for Kingship.
- Authors
Lamb, Robert Paul
- Abstract
The article focuses on the motion picture "Citizen Kane." The author's thesis is that "Citizen Kane" is the saga of a frustrated quest for kingship. The lesson of the tale is not the vapid idea that love is more important than money, but that American liberalism makes kingship an impossibility. To illuminate this argument the author shall go back five thousand years to the cosmogonic myth of the ancient Babylonians, the Enuma Elish. The Enuma Elish is both a creation epic and a myth of kingship. "Citizen Kane" is the story of a man who has one element of kingship--power, but who spends his life in a futile search for the missing element--authority.
- Subjects
CITIZEN Kane (Film); BABYLONIAN cosmogony; KINGS &; rulers; POWER (Philosophy); AUTHORITY; PERFORMING arts
- Publication
Journal of American Studies, 1985, Vol 19, Issue 2, p267
- ISSN
0021-8758
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0021875800012135