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Species Matters: Humane Advocacy and Cultural Theory
by Marianne DeKoven Michael LundbladWhy has the academy struggled to link advocacy for animals to advocacy for various human groups? Within cultural studies, in which advocacy can take the form of a theoretical intervention, scholars have resisted arguments that add "species" to race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other human-identity categories as a site for critical analysis. Species Matters considers whether cultural studies should pay more attention to animal advocacy and whether, in turn, animal studies should pay more attention to questions raised by cultural theory. The contributors to this volume explore these issues particularly in relation to the "humane" treatment of animals and various human groups and the implications, both theoretical and practical, of blurring the distinction between "the human" and "the animal." They address important questions raised by the history of representing humans as the only animal capable of acting humanely and provide a framework for reconsidering the nature of humane discourse, whether in theory, literary and cultural texts, or current advocacy movements outside of the academy.
Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure
by Rick Meier Rory CullenIn Specifications for Building Conservation, the National Trust draws on a range of case studies and specifications to provide a much needed guide to specification writing for building conservation. Although traditional building accounts for approximately a quarter of all buildings in the UK, the old skills and understanding required for their care and maintenance have been increasingly eroded over the last century. As the largest heritage charity in Europe, the National Trust has a first class reputation for high standards of conservation and care, and in this three volume set, the Trust brings together a remarkable pool of expertise to guide conservation professionals and students through the process of successful specification writing. This first book focusses on the materials used for the external fabric, detailing successful approaches employed by the National Trust at some of their most culturally significant sites. A range of studies have been carefully selected for their interest, diversity and practicality; showcasing projects from stonework repairs on the magnificent Grade I listed Hardwick Hall to the re-thatching of the traditional cottages of the Holnicote Estate. Complete with a practical Conservation Management Plan checklist, this book will enable practitioners to develop their skills, allowing them to make informed decisions when working on a range of project types. This is the first practical guide to specification writing for building conservation and the advice provided by the National Trust experts will be of interest to any practitioners and students involved in building conservation, both in the UK and beyond. Profits generated from the sale of this publication will go to the National Trust Building Apprenticeship Scheme. This provides placements for traditional skills at National Trust properties.
Spectacle Earth: Media for Planetary Change (Cultural Frames, Framing Culture)
by Andrew KalaidjianArtistic, literary, and technological depictions of the climate crisis and how they influence humanity&’s response What does it mean to watch a disaster unfold? Does exposure to a source of dread spur people to action or lull them into fatalism and complacency? Andrew Kalaidjian takes up these and other vital questions in Spectacle Earth, a lively and wide-ranging consideration of media engagement, passivity, and virtual environments in relation to ecological crises and climate change. Kalaidjian begins by tracing the long trajectory of environmental aesthetics and natural sciences that have led up to the Anthropocene. He then looks at the lessons learned from artist and activist movements of the 1960s and 1970s before laying out the new challenges in the digital age of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and virtual reality. The result is groundbreaking, offering readers a new media literacy that goes beyond individual therapeutic experience to provide forms of expression that can lead to the sorts of solidarity and connection needed to change the planet for the better.
Spectacle, Fashion and the Dancing Experience in Britain, 1960-1990 (Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music)
by Jon StrattonThis book explores dancing from the 1960s to the 1980s; though this period covers only twenty years, the changes during it were seismic. Nevertheless continuities can be found, and those are what this book examines. In dancing, it answers how we moved from the self-control that formed the basis for ballroom dancing, to ecstatic rave dancing. In terms of music, it answers how we moved from the beat groups to electronic dance music. In terms of youth, it answers how we moved from youth culture to club culture.
Spectacle in Classical Cinemas: Musicality and Historicity in the 1930s (Routledge Advances in Film Studies)
by Tom BrownSpectacle is not often considered to be a significant part of the style of ‘classical’ cinema. Indeed, some of the most influential accounts of cinematic classicism define it virtually by the supposed absence of spectacle. Spectacle in ‘Classical’ Cinemas: Musicality and Historicity in the 1930s brings a fresh perspective on the role of the spectacular in classical sound cinema by focusing on one decade of cinema (the 1930s), in two ‘modes’ of filmmaking (musical and historical films), and in two national cinemas (the US and France). This not only brings to light the special rhetorical and affective possibilities offered by spectacular images but refines our understanding of what ‘classical’ cinema is and was.
A Spectacle of Dust: The Autobiography
by Pete PostlethwaiteVibrant and candid memoirs of the late, great British character actor, Pete Postlethwaite.After training as a teacher, Pete Postlethwaite started his acting career at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre where his colleagues included Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher and Julie Walters. After routine early appearances in small parts for television programmes such as THE PROFESSIONALS, Postlethwaite's first success came with the acclaimed British film DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES in 1988. He then received an Academy Award nomination for his role in THE NAME OF THE FATHER in 1993. His performance as the mysterious lawyer "Kobayashi" in THE USUAL SUSPECTS is well-known, and he appeared in many successful films including ALIEN 3, BRASSED OFF, THE SHIPPING NEWS, THE CONSTANT GARDENER, as Friar Lawrence in Baz Luhrmann's ROMEO + JULIET, and in INCEPTION with Leonardo diCaprio. Pete Postlethwaite was one of the best-loved and widely admired performers on stage, TV (SHARPE, THE SINS) and in cinema. In THE ART OF DISCWORLD, Terry Pratchett said that he had always imagined Sam Vimes as 'a younger, slightly bulkier version of Pete Postlethwaite', while Steven Spielberg called him 'the best actor in the world', about which Postlethwaite said: 'I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, "the thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world."' This is the story of a diverse and multi-talented actor's eventful life, told in his own candid and vibrant words.
A Spectacle of Dust: The Autobiography
by Pete PostlethwaiteAfter training as a teacher, Pete Postlethwaite started his acting career at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre where his colleagues included Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher and Julie Walters. After routine early appearances in small parts for television programmes such as THE PROFESSIONALS, Postlethwaite's first success came with the acclaimed British film DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES in 1988. He then received an Academy Award nomination for his role in THE NAME OF THE FATHER in 1993. His performance as the mysterious lawyer "Kobayashi" in THE USUAL SUSPECTS is well-known, and he appeared in many successful films including ALIEN 3, BRASSED OFF, THE SHIPPING NEWS, THE CONSTANT GARDENER, as Friar Lawrence in Baz Luhrmann's ROMEO + JULIET, and in INCEPTION with Leonardo diCaprio. Pete Postlethwaite was one of the best-loved and widely admired performers on stage, TV (SHARPE, THE SINS) and in cinema. In THE ART OF DISCWORLD, Terry Pratchett said that he had always imagined Sam Vimes as 'a younger, slightly bulkier version of Pete Postlethwaite', while Steven Spielberg called him 'the best actor in the world', about which Postlethwaite said: 'I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, "the thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world."' This is the story of a diverse and multi-talented actor's eventful life, told in his own candid and vibrant words.Read by Philip Jackson (BRASSED OFF), with an introduction by Sean Bean.(p) 2011 Orion Publishing Group
Spectacle of Empire
by Jerry WassermanArguably the first North American play, this edition includes the original French script of Marc Lescarbot's Theatre of Neptune in New France, two twentieth-century English translations, Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness, and an extensive historical and critical introduction by Jerry Wasserman.
The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades
by Carl Royer B Lee CooperGo behind the scenes with an insightful look at horror films-and the directors who create them The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades examines the work of several of the genre&’s most influential directors and investigates how traditional themes of isolation, alienation, death, and transformation have helped build the foundation of horror cinema. Authors Carl and Diana Royer examine the techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock that place his work squarely in the horror (rather than suspense) genre, discuss avant-garde cinema&’s contributions to mainstream horror, explore films that use the apartment setting as the "cell of horror," and analyze how angels and aliens function as the supernatural "Other." A unique resource for film students and film buffs alike, the book also examines Sam Raimi&’s Evil Dead trilogy and the fusion of science, technology, and quasi-religious themes in David Cronenberg&’s films. Instead of presenting a general overview of the horror genre or an analysis of a specific sub-genre, actor, or director, The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films offers an imaginative look at classic and contemporary horror cinema. The book examines Surrealist films such as Un Chien Andalou and Freaks, the connections among the concepts of voyeurism, paranoia, and alienation in films like Rear Window, Rosemary&’s Baby, Blue Velvet, and The Blair Witch Project; the use of otherworldly creatures in films such as The Prophecy, Dogma, and The Day The Earth Stood Still; and the films of directors George Romero, John Waters, and Darren Aronofsky, to name just a few. This unique book also includes an extensive A-to-Z filmography and a bibliography of writings on, and about, horror cinema from filmmakers, film critics, and film historians. The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films examines: "Body Doubles and Severed Hands"-the common ancestry of avant-garde "art" films and exploitation horror B-movies "And I Brought You Nightmares"-recurring themes of psychological terror in Alfred Hitchcock&’s films "Horror, Humor, Poetry"-Sam Raimi&’s transformation of "drive-in" horror cinema "Atheism and 'The Death of Affect'"-David Cronenberg&’s obsessions, interests, and cautionary messages in films ranging from Videodrome to Dead Ringers to eXistenZ and much more!The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades is a unique resource of critical analysis for academics working in film and popular culture, film historians, and anyone interested in horror cinema.
The Spectacle of Politics and Religion in the Contemporary Turkish Cinema
by Ebru Thwaites DikenThis book explores how politics, religion and cinema encounter and re-invent each other in contemporary Turkish cinema. It investigates their common origin—the spectacle, which each field views as an instrument of governmentality. The book analyses six recent, some of which are internationally known Turkish films: The Messenger (Ulak), A Man’s Fear of God (Takva), Let’s Sin (İtirazım Var), SixtyOne Days (İftarlık Gazoz), The Imam and The Shadowless (Gölgesizler). Thwaites discusses how the cinematic nature of politics and religion unfold amidst the increasing media visibility of religion in contemporary Turkey. The chapters explore the relationship between art and religion, and compare religion and philosophy in their relation to truth, belief, and economy. Through close examination of these films, the author highlights the role of cinema in contemporary Turkey and at the heart of the religious paradigm.
Spectacle of Property: The House in American Film
by John David RhodesMuch of our time at the movies is spent in other people&’s homes. Cinema is, after all, often about everyday life. Spectacle of Property is the first book to address the question of the ubiquitous conjuncture of the moving image and its domestic architecture. Arguing that in cinema we pay to occupy spaces we cannot occupy, John David Rhodes explores how the house in cinema both structures and criticizes fantasies of property and ownership.Rhodes tells the story of the ambivalent but powerful pleasure we take in looking at private property onscreen, analyzing the security and ease the house promises along with the horrible anxieties it produces. He begins by laying out a theory of film spectatorship that proposes the concept of the &“spectator-tenant,&” with reference to films such as Gone with the Wind and The Magnificent Ambersons. The book continues with three chapters that are each occupied with a different architectural style and the films that make use of it: the bungalow, the modernist house, and the shingle style house. Rhodes considers a variety of canonical films rarely analyzed side by side, such as Psycho in relation to Grey Gardens and Meet Me in St. Louis. Among the other films discussed are Meshes of the Afternoon, Mildred Pierce, A Star Is Born, Killer of Sheep, and A Single Man.Bringing together film history, film theory, and architectural history as no book has to date, Spectacle of Property marks a new milestone in examining cinema&’s relationship to realism while leaving us vastly more informed about, if less at home inside, the houses we occupy at the movies.
The Spectacle of Skill: New and Selected Writings of Robert Hughes
by Adam Gopnik Robert Hughes"I am completely an elitist, in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive, and full to partial consciousness. I love the spectacle of skill, whether it's an expert gardener at work, or a good carpenter chopping dovetails . . . I don't think stupid or ill-read people are as good to be with as wise and fully literate ones. I would rather watch a great tennis player than a mediocre one . . . Consequently, most of the human race doesn't matter much to me, outside the normal and necessary frame of courtesy and the obligation to respect human rights. I see no reason to squirm around apologizing for this. I am, after all, a cultural critic, and my main job is to distinguish the good from the second-rate." Robert Hughes wrote with brutal honesty about art, architecture, culture, religion, and himself. He translated his passions--of which there were many, both positive and negative--brilliantly, convincingly, and with vitality and immediacy, always holding himself to the same rigorous standards of skill, authenticity, and significance that he did his subjects. There never was, and never will be again, a voice like this. In this volume, that voice rings clear through a gathering of some of his most unforgettable writings, culled from nine of his most widely read and important books. This selection shows his enormous range and gives us a uniquely cohesive view of both the critic and the man. Most revealing, and most thrilling for Hughes's legions of fans, are the never-before-published pages from his unfinished second volume of memoirs. These last writings show Robert Hughes at the height of his powers and can be read only with pleasure and a tinge of sadness that his extraordinary voice is no longer here to educate us as well as to clarify and define our world.From the Hardcover edition.
The Spectacle of Skill
by Robert Hughes Adam Gopnik"I am completely an elitist, in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive, and full to partial consciousness. I love the spectacle of skill, whether it's an expert gardener at work, or a good carpenter chopping dovetails . . . I don't think stupid or ill-read people are as good to be with as wise and fully literate ones. I would rather watch a great tennis player than a mediocre one . . . Consequently, most of the human race doesn't matter much to me, outside the normal and necessary frame of courtesy and the obligation to respect human rights. I see no reason to squirm around apologizing for this. I am, after all, a cultural critic, and my main job is to distinguish the good from the second-rate." Robert Hughes wrote with brutal honesty about art, architecture, culture, religion, and himself. He translated his passions--of which there were many, both positive and negative--brilliantly, convincingly, and with vitality and immediacy, always holding himself to the same rigorous standards of skill, authenticity, and significance that he did his subjects. There never was, and never will be again, a voice like this. In this volume, that voice rings clear through a gathering of some of his most unforgettable writings, culled from nine of his most widely read and important books. This selection shows his enormous range and gives us a uniquely cohesive view of both the critic and the man. Most revealing, and most thrilling for Hughes's legions of fans, are the never-before-published pages from his unfinished second volume of memoirs. These last writings show Robert Hughes at the height of his powers and can be read only with pleasure and a tinge of sadness that his extraordinary voice is no longer here to educate us as well as to clarify and define our world.From the Hardcover edition.
Spectacles of Reform: Theater and Activism in Nineteenth-Century America
by Hughes Amy E.In the nineteenth century, long before film and television arrived to electrify audiences with explosions, car chases, and narrow escapes, it was America's theaters that offered audiences such thrills, with "sensation scenes" of speeding trains, burning buildings, and endangered bodies, often in melodramas extolling the virtues of temperance, abolition, and women's suffrage. In Spectacles of Reform , Amy E. Hughes scrutinizes these peculiar intersections of spectacle and reform, revealing that spectacle plays a crucial role in American activism. By examining how theater producers and political groups harnessed its power and appeal, Hughes suggests that spectacle was—and remains—central to the dramaturgy of reform. Engaging evidence from lithographs to children's books to typography catalogs, Hughes traces the cultural history of three famous sensation scenes—the drunkard suffering from the delirium tremens, the fugitive slave escaping over a river, and the victim tied to the railroad tracks—assessing how they conveyed, allayed, and denied concerns about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. These images also appeared in printed propaganda, suggesting that the coup de théâtre was an essential part of American reform culture. Additionally, Hughes argues that today's producers and advertisers continue to exploit the affective dynamism of spectacle, reaching an even broader audience through film, television, and the Internet. To be attuned to the dynamics of spectacle, Hughes argues, is to understand how we see. Consequently, Spectacles of Reform will interest not only theater historians, but also scholars and students of political, literary, and visual culture who are curious about how U. S. citizens saw themselves and their world during a pivotal period in American history.
Spectacular Digital Effects: CGI and Contemporary Cinema
by Kristen WhisselBy developing the concept of the "digital effects emblem," Kristen Whissel contributes a new analytic rubric to cinema studies. An "effects emblem" is a spectacular, computer-generated visual effect that gives stunning expression to a film's key themes. Although they elicit feelings of astonishment and wonder, effects emblems do not interrupt narrative, but are continuous with story and characterization and highlight the narrative stakes of a film. Focusing on spectacular digital visual effects in live-action films made between 1989 and 2011, Whissel identifies and examines four effects emblems: the illusion of gravity-defying vertical movement, massive digital multitudes or "swarms," photorealistic digital creatures, and morphing "plasmatic" figures. Across films such as Avatar, The Matrix, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jurassic Park, Titanic, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, these effects emblems heighten the narrative drama by contrasting power with powerlessness, life with death, freedom with constraint, and the individual with the collective.
Spectacular Disappearances: Celebrity and Privacy, 1696-1801
by Julia H. FawcettHow can people in the spotlight control their self-representations when the whole world seems to be watching? The question is familiar, but not new. Julia Fawcett examines the stages, pages, and streets of eighteenth-century London as England's first modern celebrities performed their own strange and spectacular self-representations. They include the enormous wig that actor Colley Cibber donned in his comic role as Lord Foppington-and that later reappeared on the head of Cibber's cross-dressing daughter, Charlotte Charke. They include the black page of Tristram Shandy, a memorial to the parson Yorick (and author Laurence Sterne), a page so full of ink that it cannot be read. And they include the puffs and prologues that David Garrick used to heighten his publicity while protecting his privacy; the epistolary autobiography, modeled on the sentimental novel, of Garricks protégée George Anne Bellamy; and the elliptical poems and portraits of the poet, actress, and royal courtesan Mary Robinson, a. k. a. Perdita. Linking all of these representations is a quality that Fawcett terms "over-expression," the unique quality that allows celebrities to meet their spectators' demands for disclosure without giving themselves away. Like a spotlight so brilliant it is blinding, these exaggerated but illegible self-representations suggest a new way of understanding some of the key aspects of celebrity culture, both in the eighteenth century and today. They also challenge divides between theatrical character and novelistic character in eighteenth-century studies, or between performance studies and literary studies today. The book provides an indispensable, history for scholars and students in celebrity studies, performance studies, and autobiography-and for anyone curious about the origins of the eighteenth-century self. Book jacket.
Spectacular Friendship Bracelets: A Step-by-Step Guide to 34 Sensational Designs
by Ariela PshednovekBFFs 4-Eva Show your friends how much you care—and add instant fashion to any outfit—with a friendship bracelet you can make yourself. Through clear, photographed instructions, learn to make 35 colorful and classic designs ranging from simple to complicated that require only basic materials and craft techniques like braiding, macramé, and weaving. With a variety of cool textures, beadwork, and knots, these friendship bracelets are chic and simple accessories for you and your best friend to wear on any occasion. On trend, these chic and fun friendship bracelet designs are perfect for fashionable friends.
Spectacular Mexico: Design, Propaganda, and the 1968 Olympics (A Quadrant Book)
by Luis M. CastañedaIn the wake of its early twentieth-century civil wars, Mexico strove to present itself to the world as unified and prosperous. The preparation in Mexico City for the 1968 Summer Olympics was arguably the most ambitious of a sequence of design projects that aimed to signal Mexico&’s arrival in the developed world. In Spectacular Mexico, Luis M. Castañeda demonstrates how these projects were used to create a spectacle of social harmony and ultimately to guide the nation&’s capital into becoming the powerful megacity we know today. Not only the first Latin American country to host the Olympics, but also the first Spanish-speaking country, Mexico&’s architectural transformation was put on international display. From traveling exhibitions of indigenous archaeological artifacts to the construction of the Mexico City subway, Spectacular Mexico details how these key projects placed the nation on the stage of global capitalism and revamped its status as a modernized country. Surveying works of major architects such as Félix Candela, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Ricardo Legorreta, and graphic designer Lance Wyman, Castañeda illustrates the use of architecture and design as instruments of propaganda and nation branding. Forming a kind of &“image economy,&” Mexico&’s architectural projects and artifacts were at the heart of the nation&’s economic growth and cultivated a new mass audience at an international level. Through an examination of one of the most important cosmopolitan moments in Mexico&’s history, Spectacular Mexico positions architecture as central to the negotiation of social, economic, and political relations.
Spectacular Nail Art: A Step-by-Step Guide to 35 Gorgeous Designs
by Larit Levy35 easy to follow stylish designs for the perfect manicure, including nail care tips, tricks, and step-by-step how-tosToday, great nails mean more than a coat of pink polish. With a variety of designs, ideas, and patterns, you can find the right fit for any occasion. Novices needn&’t worry, either, because every project—from sparkling Champagne Chic to the wintry, Christmasy Snappy Snowflakes—includes easy-to-follow instructions and handy step-by-step photos, and most are really simple to create. Have a spooky Halloween with black-and-white cobwebbed nailsHail the red-white-and blue and stars-and-stripes forever with Positively PatrioticCelebrate the coming of spring with vintage fancy flowersGo wild with animal printsGet playful with retro dotsDazzle your wedding guests with pearly bubblesWith colorful and creative ideas for both beginners and accomplished nail artists, this fabulous collection offers designs for every hand!
Spectacular Passions: Cinema, Fantasy, Gay Male Spectatorships
by Brett FarmerThe image of the movie-obsessed gay man is a widely circulating and readily recognizable element of the contemporary cultural landscape. Using psychoanalytic theory as his guide while inflecting it with insights from both film theory and queer theory, Brett Farmer moves beyond this clich to develop an innovative exploration of gay spectatorship. The result, Spectacular Passions, reveals how cinema has been engaged by gay men as a vital forum for "fantasmatic performance"--in this case, the production of specifically queer identities, practices, and pleasures. Building on the psychoanalytic concept of the fantasmatic, Farmer works to depathologize gay male subjectivity. While discussing such films as Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Pirate, Suddenly Last Summer, and Sunset Boulevard, and stars ranging from Mae West to Montgomery Clift, Farmer argues that the particularities of gay men's social and psychic positionings motivate unique receptions of and investments in film. The Hollywood musical, gay camp readings of the extravagant female star, and the explicit homoeroticism of the cinematic male body in gay fanzines are further proof, says Farmer, of how the shifting libidinal profiles of homosexual desire interact with the fantasy scenarios of Hollywood film to produce a range of variable queer meanings. This fascinating and provocative study makes a significant new contribution to discussions of cinema, spectatorship, and sexuality. As such, it will be welcomed by those in the fields of film theory, queer theory, and cultural studies.
Spectacular Stars Simplified: Stitch & Flip Quilts with a Lone Star Look
by Shelley CavannaIt's never been easier to make Lone Star-style quilts! Shelley has simplified the intricate-looking traditional design by breaking it into easy-to-piece units, without a set-in seam or bias edge in sight. You won't be using templates or cutting angled pieces from strip sets, either. Instead, each of the eight designs begins with familiar stitch-and-flip units that are then sewn into blocks. Yes, blocks! From there, arrange blocks to create a variety of stellar designs that even a novice can complete with ease. If you can stitch on a marked line, you're ready to make these heavenly quilts! Intricate-looking designs reimagined with simplified piecing Everyone loves to stitch-and-flip These beginner-friendly blocks will make everyone feel at ease Customer Review: A wonderful addition to any quilter’s library. There are eight beautiful contemporary projects with each having an alternative layout suggestion; one looks amazingly like old-world, Spanish mosaic tile. Just gorgeous! But most impressive is the unique manner of construction that avoids bias edges commonly experienced with star patterns. Very cleverly designed. Will look forward to more from this talented designer and quilter.
Spectatorship and Film Theory: The Wayward Spectator
by Carlo ComanducciThis book interrogates the relation between film spectatorship and film theory in order to criticise some of the disciplinary and authoritarian assumptions of 1970s apparatus theory, without dismissing its core political concerns. Theory, in this perspective, should not be seen as a practice distinct from spectatorship but rather as an integral aspect of the spectator’s gaze. Combining Jacques Rancière’s emancipated spectator with Judith Butler’s queer theory of subjectivity, Spectatorship and Film Theory foregrounds the contingent, embodied and dialogic aspects of our experience of film. Erratic and always a step beyond the grasp of disciplinary discourse, this singular work rejects the notion of the spectator as a fixed position, and instead presents it as a field of tensions—a “wayward” history of encounters.
The Specter and the Speculative: Afterlives and Archives in the African Diaspora
by Mae G. Henderson Jeanne Scheper Emily Ruth Rutter Danielle Fuentes Morgan Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns Gene Melton Diana Arterian Christopher Giroux Stella Setka Meina Yates-Richard Luis Omar Ceniceros Shamika Ann Mitchell Andrew R. Belton Kim White Sheila Smith McKoy Pekka Kilpeläinen Emiliano Aguilar Juan Ignacio Juvé Kajsa K. Henry McKinley E. MeltonThe Specter and the Speculative: Afterlives and Archives in the African Diaspora engages in a critical conversation about how historical subjects and historical texts within the African Diaspora are re-fashioned, re-animated, and re-articulated, as well as parodied, nostalgized, and defamiliarized, to establish an “afterlife” for African Atlantic identities and narratives. These essays focus on transnational, transdisciplinary, and transhistorical sites of memory and haunting—textual, visual, and embodied performances—in order to examine how these “living” archives circulate and imagine anew the meanings of prior narratives liberated from their original context. Individual essays examine how historical and literary performances—in addition to film, drama, music, dance, and material culture—thus revitalized, transcend and speak across temporal and spatial boundaries not only to reinstate traditional meanings, but also to motivate fresh commentary and critique. Emergent and established scholars representing diverse disciplines and fields of interest specifically engage under explored themes related to afterlives, archives, and haunting.
Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes (Film and Culture Series)
by Maggie HennefeldWomen explode out of chimneys and melt when sprayed with soda water. Feminist activists play practical jokes to lobby for voting rights, while overworked kitchen maids dismember their limbs to finish their chores on time. In early slapstick films with titles such as Saucy Sue, Mary Jane’s Mishap, Jane on Strike, and The Consequences of Feminism, comediennes exhibit the tensions between joyful laughter and gendered violence. Slapstick comedy often celebrates the exaggeration of make-believe injury. Unlike male clowns, however, these comic actresses use slapstick antics as forms of feminist protest. They spontaneously combust while doing housework, disappear and reappear when sexually assaulted, or transform into men by eating magic seeds—and their absurd metamorphoses evoke the real-life predicaments of female identity in a changing modern world.Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes reveals the gender politics of comedy and the comedic potentials of feminism through close consideration of hundreds of silent films. As Maggie Hennefeld argues, comedienne catastrophes provide disturbing but suggestive images for comprehending gendered social upheavals in the early twentieth century. At the same time, slapstick comediennes were crucial to the emergence of film language. Women’s flexible physicality offered filmmakers blank slates for experimenting with the visual and social potentials of cinema. Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes poses major challenges to the foundations of our ideas about slapstick comedy and film history, showing how this combustible genre blows open age-old debates about laughter, society, and gender politics.
Spectral Characters: Genre and Materiality on the Modern Stage
by Sarah BalkinTheater’s materiality and reliance on human actors has traditionally put it at odds with modernist principles of aesthetic autonomy and depersonalization. Spectral Characters argues that modern dramatists in fact emphasized the extent to which humans are fictional, made and changed by costumes, settings, props, and spoken dialogue. Examining work by Ibsen, Wilde, Strindberg, Genet, Kopit, and Beckett, the book takes up the apparent deadness of characters whose selves are made of other people, whose thoughts become exteriorized communication technologies, and whose bodies merge with walls and furniture. The ghostly, vampiric, and telepathic qualities of these characters, Sarah Balkin argues, mark a new relationship between the material and the imaginary in modern theater. By considering characters whose bodies respond to language, whose attempts to realize their individuality collapse into inanimacy, and who sometimes don’t appear at all, the book posits a new genealogy of modernist drama that emphasizes its continuities with nineteenth-century melodrama and realism.