Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

History Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Cultural History

2009

Rhode Island College

Silent cinema;female spectatorship;feminist film theory;classical Hollywood cinema;motion pictures;film viewing;film history;film posters;fandom;feminism and motion pictures;exotic male stars;primitive cinema;Kinetoscope films;Eugen Sandow;Rudolph Valentino;1920s American culture;The Sheik;The Son of the Sheik

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in History

Silent Subversions, Derek Dubois Dec 2009

Silent Subversions, Derek Dubois

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Explores the concept of spectatorship in relation to gender in the earliest period of film history in the United States known as the silent era. Argues that a new mode of spectatorship emerges for women during the 1920s, which employs to advantage the extra-diegetic components of spectacle in theater design, new customized genres for female filmgoers, fandom, and exotic male film stars, such as Rudolph Valentino. Focuses primarily on feminist film theory and on cultural studies as methodological models.