Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Tune In, Turn On: The Novel, The Family, And The Plug-In Drug, Kathleen Fitzpatrick

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

This article, forthcoming (January 2010) in an online casebook from Dalkey Archive Press on Curtis White’s Memories of My Father Watching TV, explores the peculiar relationship between the novel and its representations of television, arguing that this novel significantly complicates the anxious representations that I explored in The Anxiety of Obsolescence, by focusing on the subversive potential that television presents within the family.

Rescripting Stalinist Masculinity: Contesting The Male Ideal In Soviet Film And Society, 1953-1968, Marko Dumančić

History Faculty Publications

This dissertation traces the evolution of a new type of cinematic masculinity in the fifteen years following Joseph Stalin’s death and examines how controversial post-Stalinist movie heroes became a battleground for the country’s postwar values and ideals. During the 1950s and 1960s, postwar Soviet leadership faced the kinds of sociopolitical ruptures that were also evident on the other side of the Iron Curtain; the Communist Party leadership struggled to moderate the combined destabilizing effect of consumerism, a recalcitrant youth (sub)culture, and Cold War anxieties. Nowhere was the angst of the postwar period more obvious than in the way Soviet filmmakers …

A Political Economy Of Formatted Pleasures, Edward Brennan

Books/Book chapters

No abstract provided.

Through The Lens Of A "Branded Criminal": The Politics Of Marginal Cinema In India, Rashmi Sawhney

Books/Book chapters

Images of Adivasis (Indian tribal communities) being displaced by the building of industries and dams have been regularly flashing across our television screens for the last twenty years or so, yet, media scholars have shown very little interest in this constituency either as producers or as audiences. This chapter argues that, contrary to the mass media’s favourite stereotype of the forest-inhabiting ‘native’, India’s tribal communities exist in a complex constellation of modernities, both urban and rural, and that many of these communities have at least a nominal contact with media cultures. One such group, the Chharas of Ahmedabad, popularly branded …

A Political Economy Of Formatted Pleasures, Edward Brennan

Books/Book chapters

This chapter argues that, by promoting audience pleasures based in the pursuit of individual and materialistic goals, most television formats are consonant with a dominant orthodoxy which sees markets as the only way to organise society . This elective affinity between format pleasures and free market ideology, however, does not come about through deliberate design. Rather it is an unintended consequence of television production’s response to economic and practical necessity. In their form, content and production practices formats are pre-adapted to the demands of a globalised media market place. This commercial logic has given formats a peculiar signature in terms …

From Bruff To The Balkans: James David Bourchier, Michael Foley

Books/Book chapters

James Bouchier was an Irish journalist who served as the London Times correspondent in the Balkans and especially Bulgaria. Because of his championing of the Bulgarian nationalist interest he became a hero who is still remembered nearly 90 years after his death

Germans, Jews And Turks (Spring 2010), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

This class studies the expression of cultural identity in central European literature. How have people come to think of themselves or others as “Germans,” “Jews,” “Turks,” or some combinations thereof? While the Holocaust is obviously central to the German-Jewish relationship, it is not the only focus of this course—we will read literary reflections of the emancipation of the Jews, of German-Jewish assimilation and symbiosis, of the rise of anti-Semitism and Zionism, as well as attempts to remember the past. And while the long history of the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in Germany will be a major component of our …

Correspondences And Complementarity In Visual Music, Bill Alves

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Visual music is an art form that implies intermodal connections between the senses but which has historically often failed to identify aesthetically satisfying correspondences. Artistic success does not automatically emerge in one medium when its elemental characteristics are mapped to those of an existing work from another medium. I offer examples from my own abstract animations with music, which draw upon John Whitney's concept of complementarity, a more intuitive correspondence at a higher level of aesthetic qualities, that of stasis and dynamism or tension and resolution.

Twilight Follows Tradition: Analyzing "Biting" Critiques Of Vampire Narratives For Their Portrayals Of Gender & Sexuality, Melissa R. Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Vampires have dominated print literature since the 18th century, eventually becoming more visible as they crossed mediated boundaries and genre divides. Now flourishing in neo-gothic realms like science fiction and fantasy, in print genres like chick-lit and young adult, and in the visual realm (from Hollywood’s big screen to daytime television’s sudsy small screen), vampire narratives are finding increased popularity. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series has shined a new spotlight on the all-encompassing umbrella genre that is “vamp lit,” and with it has come renewed attention to the so-called anti-feminist messages present in such narratives, such as the perceived negative characterization …

Ua68/6 Much Ado About ... Quite A Lot: An English Department Newsletter, Department Of English

English Department Publications

In the areas of research, scholarship, creativity, and teaching excellence, the English faculty has enjoyed a rich and varied year. The quality of the faculty’s work is evident in the public recognition and honors they have received. We are pleased to share some of our achievements

Narrative In Live Visual Performance, Henry Lenz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For purposes of this thesis, live visual performance is defined as the accompaniment of music using projected or televised visual stimuli to achieve a supplemental interpretation of the music to tell its 'story' in a visual way. In my research I have found that, while complex narrative in a song can be conveyed through various means, the attention span of those listening and watching in a club setting is not conducive for patrons to sit down and engage in watching the visuals for a protracted period of time. Most patrons are dancing and socializing and do not choose to watch …

‘Killer Vacations’ And ‘Murder Music’: The Discourses Of Gay Identity, Consumerism, And Race In The Gay-Dancehall Confrontation, James Rogers

Digitized Theses

Using Foucaultian discourse analysis, this thesis examines the discursive practices of AngloAmerican gay activists who respond to the homophobic lyrics and violence of Jamaican dancehall music and culture. Since the early 1990s, gay activists in North America and the United Kingdom have mobilized in opposition to the graphic anti-gay violence in Jamaican popular culture. While much has been written about the metaphor, performativity, and symbolic violence in dancehall music, there is a paucity of scholarship that analyzes the discourse of gay activists who, in taking aim at dancehall homophobia, arguably produce the framework in which dancehall is meaningfully discussed. My …

True Blood: The Vampire As A Multiracial Critique On Post-Race Ideology, Nicole Rabin

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

The Fear Of Castration And Male Dread Of Female Sexuality: The Theme Of The “Vagina Dentata” In Dracula, Laura Linneman

Journal of Dracula Studies

Bram Stoker’s Dracula reflects the Victorian fear of reverse colonization by the “Other” or the encroachment of the outsider on the British Empire as well as the repression of sexuality in Victorian England; however, there is one facet of the text that has never been fully explored: the inherent male fear of castration and feminine sexuality as well as its relationship to the “vagina dentata” motif. Furthermore, this dread of female sexuality has not been adequately explored in light of the novel’s historical context. Written during the rise of the New Woman, Stoker crafts a response to the increasing independence …

Vampirism, And The Visual Medium: The Role Of Gender Within Pop Culture’S Latest Slew Of Vampires, Kristopher Broyles

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Our Lady Of The Telegraph: Mina As Medieval Cyborg In Bram Stoker’S Dracula, Eric Brownell

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Vamping Up Sex: Audience, Age, & Portrayals Of Sexuality In Vampire Narratives, Melissa Ames

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

All In The Family: A Retrospective Diagnosis Of R.M. Renfield In Bram Stoker’S Dracula, Elizabeth Winter

Journal of Dracula Studies

No abstract provided.

Review: Karen Ward Mahar (2008): Women Filmmakers In Early Hollywood, Sara Ross

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Book review

Mahar, Karen Ward. Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

This book will be a useful reference for feminist and film historians looking to expand their understanding of how film and business history can help to explain the gendering of filmmaking.

Screening The Modern Girl: Intermediality In The Adaptation Of Flaming Youth, Sara Ross

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

In November 1923, First National Pictures released a film adaptation of a scandalous bestselling novel, Flaming Youth, in which three upper-class sisters flout the conventions of proper courtship and girlish chastity held dear by the previous generation. The novel presents the sisters as examples of the revolution in sexual behavior of the modern girl happening in the United States and around the world. Record crowds flocked to the theater to see the wild partying, nudity, and sex of the book brought to life on screen.

Of course, texts such as these were under close scrutiny for the effect that …

Remember The Titans, Historical Fact Or Fiction?, Amy S. Tate

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

In the late 1990s, screen writer Gregory A. Howard wrote a screen play called Remember the Titans, based on the true story of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Pictures bought the script based on the fact that it is a true story, but much of the film‟s content is fictional. Gregory Howard admitted to ESPN writer Jeff Merron that “he made some big assumptions when writing his script” (qtd. in Merron 5). Though the film is not entirely historically accurate, it is successful because it appeals to Americans through its intense emotional …

Identidades Por Negociar: La Presentación De La Piel Humana En La Fotografía De René Peña., Ilka Kressner

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship

This paper analyzes several works by Cuban photographer René Peña from the point of view of his depiction of the human skin. Peña, one of Cuba’s most renowned photographers, with an impressive list of exhibits in Cuba, the US, and Europe, became known as an artist of sharp and formalistic black and white photographs, mostly focusing on the human body. Through his idiosyncratic staging and estranging juxtapositions on the photographic paper, Peña’s work is never solely artistic: it challenges for instance the binary opposition between black and white, the concept of fixed sexualities, or the process of aging.

In many …

Research Report: Violence In Children’S Films, Ann Wheeler, Kristyn Birkeland

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

The goal of this research is to find out if violence in children’s films has increased within the past five decades. In order to achieve this goal, 22 children’s films were given multiple reviews by college students, who carefully analyzed them using the same questionnaire. Using a simple random sampling method of research, films were chosen within clusters of decades and were analyzed using variables that depict violence. After collectively studying the results of the twenty-two children’s films, we discovered that violence in children’s films has increased over the past five decades.

Rationale For Pride Of Baghdad, Crag Hill Ph.D.

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

A rationale for teaching the graphic novel Pride of Baghdad at the secondary level.

Sequential Art, Graphic Novels, And Comics, Brian Kelley

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

The first global distribution of a paper prepared for the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Graphic Novels Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association,the Executive Board of the New Jersey Reading Association, and the Legislative and Professional Standards Committee of the NJRA.

Review Of Teaching Graphic Novels, By Katie Monnin, Susan Spangler

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

No abstract provided.

Rationale For Magneto: Testament, Brian Kelley

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

A rationale for teaching the graphic novel Magneto:Testament in secondary schools.

Comic Vision, Gale Acuff

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

A narrative, rhetorical poem

Para-Romantic Love And Para-Friendships: Development And Assessment Of A Multiple-Parasocial Relationships Scale, Riva Tukachinsky

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Parasocial-relationships (PSR) are viewers' imaginary relationships with media personae. Despite the growing body of research on PSR, the field is still lacking a clear conceptualization and precise measure of this phenomenon. The present study suggests a novel theorization of PSR as para-friendship and para-love. Study 1 demonstrates construct validity of a new Multiple-PSR scale using the logic of a multi-trait multi-method approach. Study 2 replicates the factorial solution using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, Study 3 provides evidence for the criterion validity of the scales. Together, these findings suggest that PSR encompass several types of relationships that might mediate different media …

Towards An Ontology Of Bob Dylan, William J. Richardson

Research Resources

No abstract provided.