American Film Studies Commons^™

Feature Films As History, Bryan Jack

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

The American Dime Museum: Bodily Spectacle And Social Midways In Turn-Of-The-Century American Literature And Culture, James C. Fairfield

Theses and Dissertations--English

The freak played a significant role in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century entertainment, but its significance extended beyond such venues as sideshows and minstrel shows. This dissertation examines the freak as an avatar emblematic of several issues, such as class and race, traditionally focused on in studies of Turn-of-the Century American literature and culture.

Disability and freakishness are explored as central to late-nineteenth- and early twentieth- century Americans’ identity. Freakishness is applied to a series of ways in which Americans in this period constructed their identity, including race, gender, and socioeconomic class, showing the dual role that the freak played for many …

Cumulative Index Of Clcweb: Comparative Literature And Culture (1999-), Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Long Live The Evil Queen: Once Upon A Time's Evolved Villain, Frank S. Lombari

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest Queen of all? In today's pop culture, many traditional villains are beginning to be turned into antiheroes. ABC's television show Once Upon a Time has taken a number of fairy tale villains and provided them both a background and character growth. Specifically, the adaptation of the Evil Queen has shifted from primary antagonist to redeemed hero over the first three seasons. The show also displays her in the real-world rather than just a fairy tale universe. The author claims that this radical development occurs due three essential aspects: the Evil Queen and Snow …

Revisiting The Ghosts Of Vatican Ii: Gender In Catholic Horror Cinema Of The American 60s And 70s, Currie D. Mckinley

Honors Theses

This thesis contextualizes 1960s and 1970s American horror films against the historical backdrop of Vatican II with the intent of discovering how the texts, reception, and legacies of the films could illuminate the gender politics of the various changes implemented over the course of Vatican II. The first chapter analyzes the text of Rosemary's Baby as a metaphor for restrictive policies on birth control on the part of the post-Vatican II papacy. The second chapter considers the implications of disagreements between the author and director of The Exorcist with regard to how different individuals wanted the Catholic Church to present …

Transferential Poetics, From Poe To Warhol, Adam Frank

Literature

Transferential Poetics presents a method for bringing theories of affect to the study of poetics. Informed by the thinking of Silvan Tomkins, Melanie Klein, and Wilfred Bion, it offers new interpretations of the poetics of four major American artists: Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and Andy Warhol. The author emphasizes the close, reflexive attention each of these artists pays to the transfer of feeling between text and reader, or composition and audience— their transferential poetics. The book’s historical route from Poe to Warhol culminates in television, a technology and cultural form that makes affect distinctly available to perception. …

Happily Ever After: Is Disney Setting Us Up? A Study On Disney Princesses And Their Influence On Young Women And Their Personal Love Narratives, Brittany Danielle Minor

Theses & Dissertations

This study discusses the issue of whether the influence of Disney films affects the girls who watch these films once they become adult women. Disney "princess" films are animated movies produced by Disney, featuring princess characters such as Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Pocahontas. The purpose of this study is to discover how watching Disney princess films as a child affects the decisions adult women aged 20-37 make when it comes to their love lives. A survey, completed by 40 females aged 20-37, was conducted and relating literature was explored for data collection. The surveys were analyzed …

Obesity Among Young American Indian Adults In North Dakota, Abby Omahen

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Obesity among American Indian young adults is a significant health problem. There is an increase in the prevalence rate of diseases associated with obesity which tend to have high medical costs and high mortality rates. Fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise, gender and education are factors which could affect obesity among American Indians. Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study was to determine if there was an association between certain factors (fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise, gender and education level) and obesity among young American Indian adults in North Dakota. The secondary purpose was to determine if there was a …

Rulers, Rhetoric, And Ray-Guns: A Post Colonial Look At 90'S Alien Invasion Media, Logan Matthew Hudspeth

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis opens discussion on American alien invasion films of the 90s as a self-critique, a reaction to being an imperial power at the end of the Cold War. The alien menace in these films is not the "other" but rather the U.S. itself being the colonizer or conqueror looking to expand its sphere of influence. Furthermore, it discusses how Presidential rhetoric in the films play a role in this postcolonial reading. Specific works studied are: Independence Day (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1998), and The Puppet Masters (1994).

Graphic Self-Consciousness, Travel Narratives, And The Asian American Studies Classroom: Delisle’S Burma Chronicles And Guibert, Lefèvre, And Lemercier’S The Photographer, Monica Chiu

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

On Popular Visual Culture And Asian American Literature: Interview With Professor Elaine Kim, Karen Chow

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

Introduction: On Contemporary Asian American Literature And Popular Visual Culture, Pamela Thoma

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

Got Lost Behind The Scenes: Underexposed Television Producers In Magazines, Jordan King

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Award-winning television shows are popularly depicted through digital media and magazine coverage. However, the strenuous efforts of TV producers are hidden behind the publicity of celebrities and plotlines of the show. Using Eugene Shaw's agenda-setting theory and Robert Entman's framing theory as a basis, the author created a case study analyzing how the producers of Lost and Game of Thrones are portrayed in magazines. The research shows that reporters tend to perpetuate the anonymity of these producers, which in effect, leads an audience to deem them as unimportant.

Using Stable Isotope Analysis To Study Altitudinal And Latitudinal Bat Migration, Lily Arias

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The general lack of knowledge on basic aspects of the biology of temperate and tropical bats, their low reproductive rates, and threats such as white-nose syndrome, wind farms, and habitat loss, make them very susceptible to population declines. My research uses an innovative technique, the analysis of stable isotopes, to study the ecology of bat migration with the main goals of contributing significantly to the understanding of bat biology and assessing the conservation status and susceptibility of bats. In the first chapter, I measured the content of hydrogen isotopes in fur samples of migratory bat species killed at a wind …

Walt Disney And The Propaganda Complex: Government Funded Animation And Hollywood Complicity During Wwii, Amanda Cunningham

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Walt Disney’s work as an animator during World War II had a measurable impact on culture and in the development of government produced messages. It is important to examine this understudied area of Disney’s life and his studio’s efforts to produce wartime training and propaganda films during WWII. Government agencies, including the U.S. Treasury, contracted Disney to produce 32 animated shorts between 1941 and 1945 (Gabler, 2007).

Employing a semiotic approach of cinema, this study focuses on the cartoons The New Spirit (1942), Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943) and Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (1943). While American wartime …

Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender Expectations In Disney’S Tangled And Disney/Pixar’S Brave, Caitlin J. Saladino

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

This project addresses messages about gender expectations in Disney princess narratives. The two films included in my project are Tangled (2010) and Brave (2012), which feature the most recently inducted princesses to the marketed Disney Princess line (Rapunzel and Merida, respectively). Using genre as an organizing principle, I argue that Rapunzel and Merida are different from the past Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, etc.) because their narratives reflect new ideas about gender expectations in modern society. The central tension appearing in both films is the opposition between the image of woman as traditional, domestic, and dependent and woman …

The Damned, The Bad, And The Ugly: Our Society's Bad (And Occasionally Sinister) Habit Of Using Villains To Label, Deter, And Other, Lacey Danielle Hoffman

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As the most dynamic characters within a plot, villains have the ability to initiate change. To demonstrate the effect a villain can have, I have chosen two very different villains of popular culture—Theodora of Oz the Great and Powerful and the Joker of The Dark Knight—because these characters have a wide reach among the American audience. Theodora is a onedimensional villain whose lack of depth fails to prompt the audience to think critically and perpetuates the patriarchal issues portrayed in the film. The Joker, however, is captivating because he is complex and pushes the reader to think critically …

Children In The Films Of Alfred Hitchcock, Debbie Olson, Jason Mcentee

English Faculty Books

Jason McEntee is a contributing author, "'The Future’s Not Ours to See’: How Children and Young Adults Reflect the Anxiety of Lost Innocence in Alfred Hitchcock’s American Movies.”, pp.31-46.

Children and youth perform both innocence and knowingness within Hitchcock's complex cinematic texts. Though the child often plays a small part, their significance - symbolically, theoretically, and philosophically - offers a unique opportunity to illuminate and interrogate the child presence within the cinematic complexity of Hitchcock's films.

‘The Future’S Not Ours To See’: How Children And Young Adults Reflect The Anxiety Of Lost Innocence In Alfred Hitchcock’S American Movies., Jason Mcentee

English Faculty Publications

Introduction:

In The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), the Ambassador, while plotting to kill the Prime Minister, orders the kidnapped American child Hank McKenna killed, telling his would-be gunman, Edward Drayton: “Don’t you realize that Americans dislike having their children stolen?” Earlier in the movie, Jo McKenna entertains her son and husband by singing “Que Sera Sera,” and its playfulness becomes darkly ironic when she sings “the future’s not ours to see” on the eve of her son’s kidnapping.
The movie unfolds as a cat-and-mouse game in which the McKennas desperately try to locate and save their kidnapped son, …

Knowing And Being Known: Sexual Delinquency, Stardom, And Adolescent Girlhood In Midcentury American Film, Michael Todd Hendricks

Theses and Dissertations--English

Sexual delinquency marked midcentury cinematic representations of adolescent girls in 1940s, 50, and early 60s. Drawing from the history of adolescence and the context of midcentury female juvenile delinquency, I argue that studios and teen girl stars struggled for decades with publicity, censorship, and social expectations regarding the sexual license of teenage girls. Until the late 1950s, exploitation films and B movies exploited teen sex and pregnancy while mainstream Hollywood ignored those issues, struggling to promote teen girl stars by tightly controlling their private lives but depriving fan magazines of the gossip and scandals that normally fueled the machinery of …

Noir Westerns After World War Ii, Kenneth Estes Hall, Chritian Krug

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Towards the end of Ethan and Joel Coen's Academy-Award winning No Country for Old Men (2007), Carla Jean Moss's life depends on the toss of a coin. Heads or tails will decide whether she lives or dies.

The Chamberlain Estate Or: How Investors Will Learn To Stop Worrying And Give Me Money To Make My Movie, Connor King

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to have developed a competent pre-production packet for a feature length indie movie set in the South that would pique the interest of potential investors, while having ascertained the knowledge and skill set to fully realize the script as a leader of the project. Methods to achieve this goal include working on movie sets from all angles to gain first hand experience—from directing to holding sound equipment—and researching the market potential from films of a similar genre to see if this venture is worthwhile financially for myself and other stakeholders. After working on sets …

The Butler, Carol Miles

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Butler, directed by Lee Daniels.

Queer Pedagogical Desire: A Study Guide, Matt Brim

Publications and Research

This essay explores the queer pedagogical desires that attended my writing of the Study Guide for the documentary film United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (Jim Hubbard, 2012). The analysis takes up Robyn Wiegman’s central question in Object Lessons, “What is it we expect our relationship to our objects of study to do?”, which is of particular importance to the discipline of queer studies insofar as the field is oriented around the desire to meld social justice with critical pedagogy. The queer professor’s desire in the case of the Study Guide-as-object was to create a text that …

Penning The Shipper-Worthy Screenplay: Exploration Of Network Television Situational Comedy And The Crime Procedural, Kacie Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Network television writers often utilize ongoing romantic turmoil as a plot device to form loyal fan bases called "shippers," viewers who become deeply invested in the romantic relationships between their favorite television couples. For my thesis, I explored the shipper paradigm and the differences between network sitcoms and crime procedurals by creating one spec script The Big Bang Theory and another for Bones. I used research and my own personal experiences to analyze both series and write episodes that could fit within the established canons of both programs. Through the writing process I came to understand something very important …

Rape Culture Ruined My Favorite 80s Movie, Stephanie K. Adamczak

SURGE

I will admit that I wish my best friend was Duckie, I want to attend just one Saturday detention with Emilio Estevez, and I listen to an unhealthy amount of music from the Smiths and the Psychedelic Furs. Yes, I am a child of the nineties, but I spent many high school nights watching John Hughes films and attempting to dye my hair the perfect shade of Molly Ringwald red. [excerpt]

Hamza Salim Interview, Julian Coleman

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Hamza J. Salim is a Palestinian artist, architect, and community based activist from Chicago, Illinois. He earned his masters in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in New York, Chicago, Los Angels, London and Dubai. He is currently serving as the Project Director of the 12th Chicago Palestine Film Festival and is the Immigrant Community Coordinator at a non-for-profit social service agency, Arab American Family Services.

Bio from facebook.com/HamzaJSalimStudio/info

See also: http://www.hamzajsalim.com/

The Exorcist, Julia Baumgart

Communication, Media & The Arts Undergraduate Publications

The Exorcist is a Warner Brothers film that was released in 1973 and directed by William Friedkin. It was produced and written by William Peter Blatty. The movie, rated R, was nominated for Best Cinematography, but won Best Picture, and Best Director. The movie also won Best Sound, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, and much more.

If The Exorcist was released today, it would still be scary, but not that big of a deal because many other horror films contain those vulgar and terrifying graphics. However, this came out in the early 1970s when this type of content was …

[Sabbatical Report], Dawn Hall

Sabbatical Reports

Using a feminist and cultural studies perspective, my project discusses the independent film industry and its treatment of women directors and female oriented narratives. It begins with a snapshot of male filmmakers' challenges and opportunities with a focus on Kelly Reichardt's career, definition of success, and specific model of filmmaking, with a brief comparison to other female filmmakers whose definitions are different and who have chosen a more commercial path. In addition to discussing industry data and feminist film theory, the body of the work focuses on Reichardt's feature films (one per chapter) framing each within her larger political statements. …

Post-9/11 Sf Films: Terrorism, Warfare, And Dystopia, Jacob Herrmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 9/11 event has had a profound impact on all forms of contemporary narratives. After 9/11, the Bush Administration waged The War on Terror as a way to bring about the imperialist pride that the United States once maintained before Vietnam and to restore what Tom Englehardt refers to as “victory culture.” The United States government and its military have utilized the media to construct a national purpose since 9/11: a purpose largely understood as a mission to combat and eradicate terrorism as well as to police third world nations. This thesis examines post-9/11 SF films, such as The Dark …