Classical Hollywood narrative : the paradigm wars

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Classical Hollywood narrative : the paradigm wars

edited by Jane Gaines

Duke University Press, 1992

  • : pbk

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Originally published as vol. 88, no. 2 (spring 1989), of South Atlantic quarterly. With additional chapters and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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 of South 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's Dynasty. 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/ Jane M. Gaines 1 Dickens, Griffith, and Film Theory Today/ Rick Altman 9 Form Wars: The Political Unconscious of Formalist Theory/ Bill Nichols 49 Film Response from Eye to I: The Kuleshov Experiement/ Norman N. Holland 79 Securing the Fictional Narrative as a Tale of the Historical Real: The Return of Martin Guerre/ Janet Staiger 107 Between Melodrama and Realism: Anthony Asquith's Underground and King Vidor's The Crowd/ Christine Gledhill 129 The Hieroglyph and the Whore: D.W. Griffith's Intolerance/ Miriam Hansen 169 The She-Man: Postmodern Bi-Sexed Performance in Film and Video/ Chris Straayer 203 Dead Ringer: Jacqueline Onassis and the Look-Alike/ Jane Gaines 227 Nostalgia for the Present/ Fredric Jameson 253 Reading Dynasty: Television and Reception Theory/ Jane Feuer 275 Dialogues of the Living Dead/ John O. Thompson 295 Image/ Machine/ Image: On the Use and Abuse of Marx and Metaphor in Television Theory/ Richard Dienst 313 Notes on Contributors 341 Index 345

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