Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Contact: Little Orphan Ellie, Andrew Gordon

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

By featuring a woman scientist as protagonist, Contact (1997) is a welcome change in the largely male-dominated territory of American science-fiction film. The astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway is an exceptional woman for recent SF film: a brilliant, dedicated visionary who defies the male scientific establishment, goes it alone, risks her career and life for her beliefs, and succeeds in the end by taking a dangerous journey to the stars to contact intelligent extraterrestrial life. Although the movie is largely faithful to the novel by Carl Sagan, it deviates from the novel in certain critical respects which end up making Contact …

Pushing Containment: The Tale Of The 1950s Science Fiction Vamp, Susan A. George

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Starting with the observations of Janet Staiger and others regarding the female vampire or Vamp character, who has sucked men dry physically, financially, and/or morally for centuries, this essay looks at the representation of the Vamp in three science fiction films of the 1950s and 1960s—Them! (1954), The Wasp Woman (1960), and The Leech Woman (1959). The essay focuses on what the science fiction Vamp adds to the representation of the cinematic Vamp, first seen in films such as The Mothering Heart (1913) and A Fool There Was (1915), and how they represent age-old male fears regarding the feminine …

Review Of Alien Woman: The Making Of Lt. Ellen Ripley, By Ximena Gallardo C. And C. Jason Smith, Luke Vassiliou

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

It's Not Easy Being A Cast Iron Bitch: Sexual Difference And The Female Action Hero, Diana Dominguez

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Lt. Ellen Ripley of the Alien series of films, Sarah Connor of the Terminator series, and Lindsey Brigman of The Abyss are examples of a special category of female role in Hollywood – the female action hero. To varying degrees of success, the three characters mentioned above defy the principal dilemma filmmakers seem to have in creating a character that can reconcile the presumably mutually exclusive aspects of cast iron bitch and traditional patriarchal societal views of femininity. Ripley, Connor, and Brigman infiltrate the male-dominated category of the action hero, but they are not a direct feminine challenge to the …

Images Of Women In Contemporary Egyptian Film: Elements Of The Body Sexuality And Consumerism, Nahla Zeitoun

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Among the various cinematic themes which have been studied over the past several years is that of the image of women. Women, taken as cinematic figures, evoke multiple images of a cultural and social discourse and draw attention to gender and family relations in a broader sense in a specific society. Moreover, Egyptian cinema has been a major point of reference for Egyptian culture in this country. It has shaped and expressed the changing of scenarios of modern Egypt to an extent that no preceding art form could ever achieve. It has influenced the way in which people perceive various …

The Cultural-Historical Origins Of The Literary Vampire In Germany, Heidi Crawford

Journal of Dracula Studies

Before British authors began writing vampire literature, culminating in 1897 with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, eighteenth-century German poets, most significantly Heinrich August Ossenfelder, Gottfried August Bürger, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had begun to adapt the curious phenomenon of vampirism from Central Europe for the creative literature they were producing in the enlightened West. Possibly the most striking observation about the origins of the vampire figure in German poetry is that the German poets seem to have drawn more on Central European than German folklore. The reason for this is that the literary vampire was introduced into eighteenth-century German ballad poetry …

The People Of Bram Stoker's Transylvania, Duncan Light

Journal of Dracula Studies

One of the defining features of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the “specific and detailed geographical context that sets this novel apart from other gothic novels” (Florescu & McNally 5). Indeed, although Stoker had not visited Transylvania, he is known to have read widely in preparing Dracula.1 While his historical research has come under particular scrutiny, little attention has been paid to his representation and understanding of the region’s geography.2 As a human geographer with research interests in Romania, I find that there is something not “quite right” about Stoker’s Transylvania. In particular, where are the Romanians? And why are there …

Echoes Of Dracula: Racial Politics And The Failure Of Segregated Spaces In Richard Matheson's I Am Legend., Kathy Davis Patterson

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

"Betwixt Sunset And Sunrise": Liminality In Dracula, Mark M. Hennelly Jr.

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Dracula And The Afterlife: A Psychological Explanation, Jack D. Maser

Journal of Dracula Studies

Until relatively recently, the primary psychological approach to understanding Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the folklore of vampires has been psychoanalysis. Maurice Richardson asserted in 1956 that Dracula must be seen from a Freudian standpoint, since “from no other does the story really make any sense” (427). However, the psychoanalytic approach shares little with modern, scientifically based psychology. Fascinating though it may be, psychoanalytic theory has almost no measurable attributes and may itself be as mythical as vampires and an afterlife. Rather, psychoanalysis is a creative theory of human cognition and behavior that can be neither proven false, objectively replicated, nor …

Now You're A Man [Book Review], Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Zines Straight From The Stacks: Self-Published Tracts From Library Workers, Alycia Sellie

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

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 …

Race For The Senate–A Content Analysis Of The Campaign Coverage Of West Virginia Senate Candidates Marie Redd And Tom Scott In 1998 And Marie Redd And Evan Jenkins In 2002, Lynne Marsh

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In the 1998 general election, Marie Redd became the first African American elected to the state senate in West Virginia. In the 5th District Senate race for her seat in the Legislature, Redd overcame the influence of opponent Tom Scott's incumbency, as well as his race and gender. Then, in the 2002 primary election, the freshman senator lost her seat to Evan Jenkins, also a caucasian male and a former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. Previous research has shown that media treat candidates differently according to their race and gender and researchers have indicated the need for …

A Clutch Of Vampires: Or, An Examination Of The Contemporary Dracula Texts, James Craig Holte

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

From Undead Monster To Sexy Seducer: Physical Sex Appeal In Contemporary Dracula Films, Donald Rottenbucher

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Demonizing The Emerging Woman: Misrepresented Morality In Dracula And God's Little Acre, Ashley Craig Lancaster

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Vampirism And The Degeneration Of The Imperial Race - Stoker's Dracula As The Invasive Degenerate Other, Monika Tomaszweska

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Keeping The Faith: Catholicism In Dracula And Its Adaptations, D. Bruno Starrs

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Sex, Blood And (Un)Death: The Queer Vampire And Hiv, Carlen Lavigne

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

"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.

Opportunities In The Broadcast News Media: A Case Study In Gender Equity, Derek R. Lumsden

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

When one thinks of gender equity, some people would tend to get a picture of women crusading for rights, burning their bras and men in effigy, and complaining about the unfairness of life. However, this paper deals with the silent crusade towards women's right in the broadcast news industry. It revolves around a case study done in a small Midwestern town that shows how 'liberal' ideas can be forwarded in a 'conservative' environment, especially in regards to the promotion and equity of women in the broadcast news industry.

Pasado Soterrado Y Ánima Reprimida En La Muñeca Reina Y Chac Mool, Cesar Valverde

Scholarship

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.

Media, Message And Meaning: The "Queer As...What?" Symposium, Andrew Ingall

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On October 11, scholars, journalists, media watch activists, and community intellectuals examined depictions and productions of LCTBQ people in television, the World Wide Web, and print journalism at a CLAGS symposium with the wily title, "Queer as . . . What?"

Dracula In The Comics, Perry Lake

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

It's All In The Blood: The Bram Stoker/Peter Cushing Alliance, Michael Mcglasson

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

"A Race Of Devils": Frankenstein, Dracula And Science Fiction, Robert James Frost

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

The Journey Of The Damned Coffin, Jordi Ardanuy, Luis Romero

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.