Beneath The Mask: The Performance Of Blackness And Economies Of Caricature In American Fiction,
2024
School of Media Studies, The New School, New York
Beneath The Mask: The Performance Of Blackness And Economies Of Caricature In American Fiction, Terri Bowles
Markets, Globalization & Development Review
In American Fiction (2023), written for the screen and directed by Cord Jefferson, satire, drama and comedy frame a knife-sharp examination of America’s cultural reproductions of stereotype and caricature. The film, based on Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, explores the fraught professional position of Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), a professor-author pressed to write a bestseller amid family upheaval and financial strain. Monk’s resulting novel, a gritty send-up of urban tropism drafted in a fit of fury and frustration, exploits America’s fixation on commodifying and flattening Blackness—and becomes an instant hit. This review explores the film’s interrogations of race, class and …
Can Marketing Transcend Entrenched Gender Biases?,
2024
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Can Marketing Transcend Entrenched Gender Biases?, Thinh Nguyen
Markets, Globalization & Development Review
Through a feminist lens, Maclaran and Chatzidakis (2022) challenge conventional assumptions about gender, emphasizing its performative nature shaped by social practices rather than inherent traits. This commentary extends analyses of key themes such as gender performativity, the male gaze, and subject-object binaries within marketing. It critiques how marketing strategies reinforce existing power imbalances and systemic biases rooted in historical narratives. The writing also reflects on media interpretations of gender issues through films like 'Turning Red' and 'Barbie'. By contextualizing gendered marketing within broader societal frameworks, this writing contributes to ongoing dialogues in media studies, sociology, and gender studies, highlighting the …
Queering Storytelling: Challenging Normative Storytelling Methodology And Building A Queer Approach To Documentary Filmmaking,
2024
Macalester College
Queering Storytelling: Challenging Normative Storytelling Methodology And Building A Queer Approach To Documentary Filmmaking, Ruben Schneiderman
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Honors Projects
As representations of queer people on screen grow, so too has the violence for queer folks at the margins. This project looks at four documentaries that cover key moments in LGBTQ history to see how filmmaking methodologies and choices can further the harms of institutional violence. Key themes include homonormative and assimilationist representations in film, the formation of a reductive cultural memory of queer politics, and the obscuring of the global crises of AIDS. Through an analysis of these films, I argue for the formation of queer documentary methodologies that are grounded in the ideas put forward by queer theorists …
Final Master's Portfolio,
2024
Bowling Green State University
Final Master's Portfolio, Savannah Packman
Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects
This portfolio uses Marxist and feminist film theory to analyze various forms of visual media. It analyzes Mark Mylod's film The Menu (2022), Julie Taymor's film Across the Universe (2007), the historic V-J Day Kiss photograph, and popular TikTok videos. This portfolio focuses on the impact of capitalism in the political and economic sphere. It also analyzes images of women throughout history and critiques how these images have been used to formulate the American body politic.
40 Years Of Koyaanisqatsi: The Greatest Experimental Film Ever Made,
2024
Augustana College, Rock Island Illinois
40 Years Of Koyaanisqatsi: The Greatest Experimental Film Ever Made, Brian Thomas
Honors Program: Student Scholarship & Creative Works
The 1983 experimental film Koyaanisqatsi remains a visionary artistic work 40 years after it was initially released, because it continues to resonate in contemporary society by vividly depicting the intersection of human life and technology, prompting viewers to contemplate "life out of balance" and its implications. The film makes us question where life is headed and the ways in which we "live technology" today.
Scare If You Dare: A Look Into Scare Acting,
2024
East Tennessee State University
Scare If You Dare: A Look Into Scare Acting, Hana Goss
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Scare acting has always been the unsung villains of the entertainment industry. For three months of the year, for about five minutes of a haunted house, they get attention. However, the work scare actors do to is way more than just a five second “boo.” Scare actors have been at the beginning of theatre and continue to influence modern entertainment. Even though the patrons may be the ones feeling the danger, scare actors may be even more in danger than them. Each scare actor is unique from their looks to their moves. It might be take a lot of nerve …
Chat Is This Real? Perceived Authenticity Of #Naturecore Via Tiktok Comments,
2024
SUNY Cortland
Chat Is This Real? Perceived Authenticity Of #Naturecore Via Tiktok Comments, Anna Madison
Master's Theses
The purpose of this study was to understand how people perceive the authenticity of nature-based TikTok content by analyzing the comments left on videos that featured the hashtag #naturecore. Comments posted on relevant videos were observed using qualitative content analysis to evaluate how people use comments to express perceptions of authenticity. Prior literature on the perceived authenticity of mass-oriented computer mediated communication was used to inform decisions made during data analysis. Of the 138,389 comments collected as data, 1,031 were identified as relevant for this scope of this study. The final sample was analyzed using constant comparison to establish codes …
Retrieving Images From Tarnished Daguerreotypes Using X-Ray Fluorescence Imaging With An X-Ray Micro Beam With Tunable Energy,
2024
Western University
Retrieving Images From Tarnished Daguerreotypes Using X-Ray Fluorescence Imaging With An X-Ray Micro Beam With Tunable Energy, Tsun-Kong Sham, Y. Zou Finfrock, Qunfeng Xiao, Renfei Feng, Sarah Bassnett
Visual Arts Publications
We report recent observations using a synchrotron X-ray micro-beam to retrieve images from tarnished 19th century daguerreotypes. We confirm that high quality image can always be retrieved from tarnished plates using Hg Lα XRF as long as the bulk of the image particles and their distribution remains intact. We also report results from using tunable tender X-rays (2 - 7 keV) to conduct imaging in high vacuum at energy above the Ag L-edge and the Hg M-edge, extracting images using Ag Lα and Hg Mα, respectively among others (e.g., S to track corrosion). Images obtained with the surface sensitive total …
The Portrayal Of Stereotypes Of Latin American Men In American Television And Film,
2024
Wofford College
The Portrayal Of Stereotypes Of Latin American Men In American Television And Film, Karina Nava
Gender Studies Student Scholarship
In this project I seek to examine the ways in which Latin American men are stereotyped in American television and film in the form of controlling images and the impacts that these controlling images may bring. The purpose of this project is to show how television and film can not only contribute to the creation of stereotypes but enforce them as well. It also seeks to bring attention to the ways in which these stereotypes can affect societal and self-perception of Latinos, and the consequences that come with these perceptions. This will be done through a cross-disciplinary analysis using Gender …
Ratings Creep: The Increase In Offensive Content In Movies Over Time,
2024
University of Texas at Arlington
Ratings Creep: The Increase In Offensive Content In Movies Over Time, Alexandria N. Tatum
2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive
Aggression, influenced by a range of factors including media exposure, remains a significant societal concern. Drawing from Bandura's social cognitive theory, it is important to examine violence in media because its exposure can have a long-term effect on the viewers. Furthermore, studies suggest a correlation between media exposure and aggressive behavior, emphasizing the need for comprehensive analysis of content portrayal. To regulate exposure to offensive content, movies are usually ranked using the MPAA’s rating system. Yet, there has been an observed ratings creep in this system (i.e., the progressive escalation of offensive content in films). The current study hypothesizes that …
Plagiarism Or Transformation? Rethinking Originality In Modern Films,
2024
Chapman University
Plagiarism Or Transformation? Rethinking Originality In Modern Films, Kevin Le
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
A common phrase heard about mainstream modern American films is “Hollywood is running out of original ideas” or “They don’t make films like they used to.” With subscription-based movie streaming services and a bombardment of fast-paced, big-budget, CGI blockbuster remakes and superhero franchise movies, it becomes apparent that mainstream modern films have substituted thoughtful storytelling with eye-popping visual appeal. These films also caused fatigue among audience members who feel overloaded with flashy cinematography that tries too hard to create something “authentic, original, and new” without repurposing and transforming previously used story elements into new perspectives and cross-disciplinary ideas. This paper …
Cinema's Poetic Function: Creating An Amorous Distance,
2024
Chapman University
Cinema's Poetic Function: Creating An Amorous Distance, William Yonts
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
The aim of this thesis is to examine how cinema can embrace its poetic function to avoid its assimilation into preexisting hermeneutic structures, which would leave it vulnerable to myth as defined by Roland Barthes, and instead be a generative force, encouraging its viewer to engage with the full potential of the text. This mode of spectatorship is termed the “amorous distance,” which Barthes describes as his simultaneous fascination with the film and that which exceeds it. The amorous distance finds further articulation through the work of Roman Jakobson and Julia Kristeva. Jakobson’s schema of six language functions describes the …
Embracing The Wound Of Contingency: Transcribing Reality In Supernatural Horror And Found Footage,
2024
Chapman University
Embracing The Wound Of Contingency: Transcribing Reality In Supernatural Horror And Found Footage, Mason Dax Dickerson
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
To counter both the form of critical thought first outlined by Kant that dispels absolute knowledge, as well as the dogmatic necessitarianism that asserts the universe must be one way for an absolute originary reason, Quentin Meillassoux argues for the “non-facticity of facticity” to implicate an absolute contingency or unreason structuring reality: in effect, anything could happen for no reason at all. Meillassoux suggests the trauma of the contingent event and the sudden impossibility of inductive science in its wake may be explored in an “Extro-Science Fiction” text (XSF) – but limits his examples to science fiction literature. Framing the …
Independent Visions Of Marginal America: Reimagining A Nation Through Outsiders, Searching, And Non-Arrival,
2024
Chapman University
Independent Visions Of Marginal America: Reimagining A Nation Through Outsiders, Searching, And Non-Arrival, Z Evan Long
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
This thesis explores critical responses to American-ness, American identity, and most significantly American myth, in independent films about America in cultural terms, and their attempts to deconstruct the myths of nation and culture. The independent films about America analyzed in this thesis range from the 1960s to the 1990s, made by filmmakers across movements and cultures, but they all contain in some measure three key concepts: the “outsider,” the “search,” and a narrative “non-arrival.” Easy Rider (1969) will be explored as the prototype for this paradigm, contrasted with films that reinterpret the road-movie structure away from existential angst and toward …
From Film Sets To Front Lines And Back Again: Reinventing Star Image In Post-World War Ii Hollywood,
2024
Chapman University
From Film Sets To Front Lines And Back Again: Reinventing Star Image In Post-World War Ii Hollywood, Livia Belen Lozoya
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
When World War II broke out in 1939, and as the United States entered the conflict after Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, men and women all across America left their homes to serve the war effort, some of which included Hollywood stars. There were famous actors in the 1950s and 60s who served as unknown young men, but this thesis focuses on established movie stars who voluntarily left their lives of luxury to serve and returned to a changed postwar film industry, specifically James Stewart, Robert Montgomery, Marlene Dietrich, and Myrna Loy. By looking at each of these actors’ …
Intolerable Masculinity: Screening Men's Shame And Embracing Curious Futures,
2024
Chapman University
Intolerable Masculinity: Screening Men's Shame And Embracing Curious Futures, Cole Clark
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
This thesis argues that to critique hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy in good faith, film and television must focus on the futures created through men’s ethical action in the present, rather than inert displays of men’s horrific behaviors that rely on audience shame as a tool for reclaiming men’s pride. Men’s freedom to change their situation is introduced through Manon Garcia’s (2022) notion of masculinity as an “impasse,” preventing men from authentic connection with others. This concept is furthered using David Buchbinder (2013), with the television examples Mad Men (Weiner 2007-2015) and Black Mirror (Brooker 2011-2023) each presenting a different masculine …
Real To Reel: The "Third Gender" Narratives And Queer Identity In Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali Films,
2024
Chapman University
Real To Reel: The "Third Gender" Narratives And Queer Identity In Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali Films, Manjima Tarafdar
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
This thesis critically explores the third gender space that Rituparno Ghosh created in his later films, where he either featured and/or directed the films. The Bengali filmmaker, Rituparno Ghosh was one of the very few filmmakers in India who consciously and vocally spoke for the sexual minorities and represented them in his films. Focusing on the films, Arekti Premer Golpo, Memories in March and Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish, the thesis looks at the films that negotiated through the in-betweenness of gender identity, not solely lying within the binary of gender. Through this representation of the third gender space, …
Bluey And Adult Fandom: The Importance Of Play In Culture,
2024
Chapman University
Bluey And Adult Fandom: The Importance Of Play In Culture, Olivia C. Gerzabek
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
This thesis explores the animated children’s show Bluey(2018 -), its ever-growing appeal to millennials, and the online fandom that these millennials have formed. The thesis outlines a brief history of media aimed at children and families, starting with the children’s matinees of the 1930s to children’s educational media of the 1960s through the 2000s with shows like Spongebob Squarepants (1999 -) and Shrek (2001) appealing to a broad audience of all ages. Compounding on the history of animation and family-centered media, the advent of social media allows users to revisit media they have nostalgia for, share with others, and create …
Animating Gender: Conflicting Narrative And Character Design In Gravity Falls,
2024
Chapman University
Animating Gender: Conflicting Narrative And Character Design In Gravity Falls, Laine Marshall
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
This thesis analyzes the character designs from the Disney XD animated series Gravity Falls (Alex Hirsch, 2012-2016) through a third-wave feminist lens, arguing that these designs reflect an essentialized perception of gender that is in conflict with the themes of acceptance present in the series’ narrative. The series’ narrative pushes forth the idea that female characters are the moral center of the series and serve as an example to their peers, that they are self-assured and in control, and that men can push past any ignorance to care for the people around them, but this effort is undermined by the …
Lawrence As An Orientalist Figure Of Empire In David Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia,
2024
Montclair State University
Lawrence As An Orientalist Figure Of Empire In David Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia, Leen Khashashina
Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects
In this thesis, I examine the character of Lawrence in David Lean’s 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia. I seek to break apart the legend, examining his individual characteristics and interest in Arabia as well as his imperialist motivations, whether unconscious or not. Lawrence struggles to find his identity and this film is an exploration of that multitude. Many of the characters in the film have conflicting ideas about who Lawrence was because he did not even understand himself. The combination of Lawrence’s defiance of British orders and society as well as his obsession with becoming an Arab marks him as …
