Digital Commons Network^™

Notes On Wittgenstein’S Method, The Practice Of Cultural History, And Early Film Theory, Markus Rheindorf

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Markus Rheindorf's contribution offers some reflections on the critical potential of Ludwig Wittgenstein's uebersichtliche Darstellungor concise presentation, his self-consciously employed method of philosophical writing in the 1930s, and explores its theoretical and methodological potential for the practice of cultural history. In so doing, it articulates a substantial critique of conventional disciplinary historiography, taking as its case in point the history of (early) film theory. Rheindorf then takes up the suggestions gained from juxtaposing Wittengstein's method with conventional accounts of the history of early film theory and suggests concrete ways in which these might be put to practical use in the …

Nothing's Gonna Give? Age, Gender, And Cultures Of The Screen, Christine Scodari, Becky Mulvaney

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Christine Scodari's and Becky Mulvaney's Nothing's Gonna Give? Age, Gender, and Cultures of the Screen investigates the 2003 romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give, written and directed by Nancy Meyers as exceptional in its featuring a fifty-something woman as leading actress. Beginning with an analysis of the filmic text itself, the authors do not confine themselves to it, but go on to critically engage with its reception in both the press and academia. While the focus is thus shifted from the film to the meta- and para-texts produced in the course of its reception and promotion, the underlying questions asked …

The Whole World Is Watching Us: Music Television Audiences In India, Vamsee Juluri

Media Studies

No abstract provided.

Accent, Linguistic Discrimination, Stereotyping, And West Virginia In Film, Teresa L. O’Cassidy

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examines connections between accent, linguistic discrimination, and stereotyping in portrayals of West Virginia film characters. Ten films featuring West Virginia characters were examined for accent and stereotyping: The Right Stuff (Kaufman, 1983), Matewan (Sayles, 1987), Blaze (Shelton, 1989), The Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991), October Sky (Johnston, 1999), Hannibal (Scott, 2001), A Beautiful Mind (Howard, 2001), The Mothman Prophecies (Pellington, 2002), Wrong Turn (Schmidt, 2003), and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (Luketic, 2004). Coders were employed to score character accents. Stereotyping data was gathered by comparing portrayals with stereotypical traits associated with Appalachian and/or hillbilly characters. …

Recognising The Screenwriter: Agency And Authorship In Adaptation, Michelle Mcmerrin

Theses : Honours

Throughout the history of film studies, the uniqueness of film as an art form has been acknowledged. It is a multi-sensory experience that continually develops and, in the process, reflects social and cultural progression as well. Notions of authorship have been applied to aspects of film throughout its history and although the auteur theory has maintained a significant and lasting influence within the discipline, the screenwriter as author (or auteur) has consistently been excised from film, and indeed literary, study. Why this is the case when the screenplay is such a necessary component of the majority of mainstream films, and …

History Of Clcweb: Comparative Literature And Culture, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Cultural Studies At R.I.T./U.S.A: Of Visual Culture And Pedagogical Interventions, Amit Ray

Articles

Abstract:

This paper examines the role of Cultural Studies in addressing the limitations of American visual culture through pedagogical interventions at Rochester Institute of Technology. Ray argues that despite globalization's potential to enhance international understanding, American visual media remains largely ethnocentric and resistant to representing the complex realities of global interconnectedness. Using the recent Iraq War as an example, he demonstrates how media coverage systematically obscured cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts while promoting martial nationalism. The author proposes using popular animated television programs like The Simpsons and South Park as pedagogical tools to expose the contradictory nature of contemporary media …

On Gallardo And Smith's Alienwoman (2004), Stella Williams

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith's recent book, AlienWoman, is a truly fascinating analysis of the relationship/conflict between the female protagonist Lt. Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, and the monstrous feminine Alien throughout the Alien saga consisting of: Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien3 (1992), and AlienResurrection (1997). Lt. Ellen Ripley introduced viewers to their first self-reliant and successful female hero. The authors claim an important site for discussion on the changing ideas about gender, sex, and the female body is created by the Alien saga.

<2> Insightful scene-by-scene analysis reveals race, gender, and class distinctions operating …

Listening Spaces: Audiophiles, Technology And Domestic Music Listening, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

This paper examines the interrelationship of technology, space and identity as exhibited in the domestic music listening practices of the audiophile. Music listening in domestic contexts provides both a physical and imaginary space of cultural consumption. The paper describes work in progress into phenomenological aspects of listening, practices of audio technology use in domestic contexts, and features of identity formation based on a qualitative study of hi-fi listeners. Technological and cultural change in the production of aural soundscapes and processes of reception provide the backdrop to the current study. Three main issues are addressed. Firstly, the promise of digital technology …

'Who Are You?': Alien/Woman As Posthuman Subject In Alien Resurrection, Ximena Gallardo C.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

Traditionally considered a monster in outer space series, the four films comprising the Alien saga: Alien, Aliens, Alien³, and Alien Resurrection, contain a vision of the Alien creature as an agent of human evolution that, taken to its logical extreme in Alien Resurrection, produce an uncommon posthuman subject: the Alien/Woman protagonist named Ripley. In the following article, Ximena Gallardo C. explores the introduction of the series' conception of human evolution through fusion with the Alien as a driving theme in Alien. It then briefly follows through Aliens and Alien^{3, …}

From Butler To Buffy: Notes Towards A Strategy For Identity Analysis In Contemporary Television Narrative, Rob Cover

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Given the increasing significance of questions of identity, subjectivity and selfhood in contemporary postmodern western cultures, it is important to begin acknowledging how these questions are reflected in contemporary media and television and to develop new strategies by which to analyse television characters in terms of identity and subjectivity. The scope for analysing television series' characterizations through recent postmodern and poststructuralist theories of non-essentialist, non-foundationalist subject/identity performativity has not yet been considerably explored. It is my contention here, however, that such a method both reflects the representation of self and identity transformation in new television series as well …

Casablanca: Judgment And Dynamic Enclaves In Law And Cinema, Shulamit Almog, Amnon Reichman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

By interpreting the narrative and imagery of the film Casablanca, this article seeks to explore the concept of law as enclave. An enclave is a domain-physical, virtual-emotional, conceptual, social or other-defined by certain boundaries and rules of entrance and exit. We argue that Casablanca is about constructing and reconstructing such enclaves. The structure of a pending journey between enclaves organizes the events taking place in Casablanca and constitutes their dynamic nature. Enclaves, we argue, are central to the structure and operation of the law. Recognizing the enclitic nature of law allows us a better grasp of the ethical dimensions of …

Illusions Of Idle Prattle: Disney, Voice And The Little Mermaid, Veronica Diaz-Cox

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis examines the social and economic impact of Disney's gender roles, and the recurring motif of singing in both Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid and Walt Disney's film adaptation.

Teaching 9/11 And Why I'M Not Doing It Anymore, Louise Spence

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Offers information on Reading Seminar in Media and Cultural Theory, a course which tackles advanced work in the theoretical and critical context of the mass media as a social phenomenon. Issues about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. covered in the course; Psychological implications of the terrorist attacks; Social relevance of the course and the instructor's reasons for ending the course.

On Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film And Stephen C. Wood And J. David Pincus's Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in …

Of Technology And Apocalypse, Or Whose Independence Day?, Christopher Keep

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The scene is now familiar. The cities of the world are in ruins. The Empire State Building obliterated. The White House reduced to rubble. The remnants of humankind gather in the desert, scrounging together what remains of their air defence systems for one last effort to repulse the alien invaders. Haggard but determined, the last American President prepares to lead his motley crew of resistance fighters into the fray. He takes the hand mic, tests it once or twice, and his voice crackles over the speakers. In less than one hour, he announces, aircraft from here will join …

The Political Economy Of The Indie Blockbuster: Fandom, Intermediality, And The Blair Witch Project, James Castonguay

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

The primary focus of this chapter is on what could be broadly described as The Blair Witch Project's political economy. This includes a consideration of the film's relationship to patterns of ownership and the economic structures of film production, distribution, and marketing within the structure of the entertainment industry and in the context of its critical and popular reception. The second half of the essay historicizes BWP in relation to film production and exhibition in the 1890s, and concludes with an examination of its mythic status as an independent film that threatened to undermine Hollywood's blockbuster paradigm. By placing …

Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in the book's …

Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The editors of Reel Baseball begin by acknowledging the roots of their collection, which explores the intersection between movies and baseball. Since 1989 the National Baseball Hall of Fame has hosted the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. Since 1997, McFarland has published all papers presented at the symposium. Reel Baseball, then, functions both as a document and as an artifact of the "integral" place of baseball movies in American culture. Indeed, the book not only includes essays presented at the symposium, it has two foreword sections: one written by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey and the …

"Two Guns, A Girl And A Playstation™": Gender In The Tomb Raider Series, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This article considers the combination of game play and narrative which combine to produce cross-gender identifications in video games, a previously underexamined potential for the production of alternate genders, one which calls into question the stability of gender, particularly masculinity, as a construct.

Images Of Confinement : Power Relations, Cultural Industries And The Individual, Sohan Ariel Hayes

Theses : Honours

No abstract provided.

Kodak's Worst Nightmare Super 8 In The Digital Age: A Cultural History Of Super 8 Filmmaking In Australia 1965-2003, Keith Smith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This project charts the extraordinary history of the Super 8 film medium, a popular amateur home movie format first introduced in 1965 and largely assumed to have disappeared with the advent of home video technologies in the early 1980's. Kodak's Worst Nightmare investigates the cultural history of the Super 8 medium with an emphasis on its (secret) life since 1986. lt asks how (and why) an apparently obsolete consumer technology has survived some 35 years into a digital future despite the emergence of technologically-advanced domestic video formats and Eastman Kodak's sustained attempts since the mid-80s to suppress, what is for …

Review Of How A Film Theory Got Lost And Other Mysteries In Cultural Studies, By Robert B. Ray, Alan Clinton

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Selected Definitions For Work In Communication And Media Studies & Selected Bibliography Of Publications In Comparative Media Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Toward A Framework Of Audience Studies In Comparative Cultural Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Have Lamb Will Martyr: Samson As A Rustic Christ-Figure In Cecil B. Demille's Samson And Delilah (1949), Anton Karl Kozlovic

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Cecil B. DeMille [1] (1881-1959) was a seminal founder of Hollywood who helped turn a Californian orange grove into a world class centre that became the synonym for film making (DeMille & Hayne, 1960; Edwards, 1988; Essoe & Lee, 1970; Higashi, 1994; Higham, 1973; Koury, 1959; Ringgold & Bodeen, 1969). Not only was the affectionately known C. B. an important film pioneer, producer and director, but he also became known as the master of the American Biblical Epic, and was variously tagged King of the epic Biblical spectacular (Finler, 1985, p. 32), the high priest of the religious …

Selected Bibliography For The Study Of Central And East European Culture, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Constructivism And Comparative Cultural Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Selected Journals Of Media And Communication Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Mimetic Contract: Notes On Ideology, Intersubjectivity, And Film Theory, Giorgio Bertellini, C. Paul Sellors

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In this essay we would like to sketch out a few notes outlining historical and theoretical trajectories of the confusing, and often confused, relationships between ideology, history and subjectivity in Marx, Marxism and post-Marxism. Marx and Engels' approach to ideology in The German Ideology (1845-46), spawned and influenced a variety of interpretations and philosophical positions from not only the numerous schools of Marxism proper, but also structuralism, semiotics and psychoanalysis up to the very raison d'être of discourse theory and new historicism. This reaching influence occurs only at the cost of contradiction, however, between Marxist factions -- disagreements …