Classical Hollywood Narrative

by Gaines, Jane; Altman, Rick (CON); Nichols, Bill (CON); Straayer, Chris (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780822312994
• ISBN10: 0822312999
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-12-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Since the 1970s film studies has been dominated by a basic paradigm-the concept of classical Hollywood cinema-that is, the protagonist-driven narrative, valued for the way it achieves closure by neatly answering all of the enigmas it raises. It has been held to be a form so powerful that its aesthetic devices reinforce gender positions in society. In a variety of ways, the essays collected here-representing the work of some of the most innovative theorists writing today-challenge this paradigm. Significantly expanded from a special issue ofSouth Atlantic Quarterly(Spring 1989), these essays confront the extent to which formalism has continued to dominate film theory, reexamine the role of melodrama in cinematic development, revise notions of "patriarchal cinema," and assert the importance of television and video to cinema studies. A range of topics are discussed, from the films of D. W. Griffith to sexuality in avant-garde film to television'sDynasty. Classical Hollywood Narrativeinvites students of film, television, and video to reevaluate the basic tenets of the field and introduces film studies to literary scholars. Contributors. Rick Altman, Richard Dienst, Jane Feuer, Jane Gaines, Christine Gledhill, Miriam Hansen, Norman N. Holland, Fredric Jameson, Bill Nichols, Janey Staiger, Chris Straayer, John O. Thompson

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Family Melodrama of Classical Narrative Cinema

Dickens, Griffith, and Film Theory Today

Form Wars: The Political Unconscious of Formalist Theory

Film Response from Eye to I: The Kuleshov Experiement

Securing the Fictional Narrative as a Tale of the Historical Real: The Return of Martin Guerre

Between Melodrama and Realism: Anthony Asquith's Underground and King Vidor's The Crowd

The Hieroglyph and the Whore: D.W. Griffith's Intolerance

The She-Man: Postmodern Bi-Sexed Performance in Film and Video

Dead Ringer: Jacqueline Onassis and the Look-Alike

Nostalgia for the Present

Reading Dynasty: Television and Reception Theory

Dialogues of the Living Dead

Image Machine Image: On the Use and Abuse of Marx and Metaphor in Television Theory

Notes on Contributors

Index

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