Notions of Genre: Writings on Popular Film Before Genre Theory

Published by University of Texas Press 2016

Notions of Genre

Writings on Popular Film Before Genre Theory

Edited by: Barry Keith Grant and Malisa Kurtz

https://doi.org/10.7560/303757

Overview
Contents

About this book

Much of the writing in film studies published today can be understood as genre criticism, broadly speaking. And even before film studies emerged as an academic discipline in the 1970s, cultural observers within and beyond the academy were writing about genre films and making fascinating attempts to understand their conventions and how they speak to, for, and about the culture that produces them. While this early writing on genre film was often unsystematic, impressionistic, journalistic, and judgmental, it nonetheless produced insights that remain relevant and valuable today.

Notions of Genre gathers the most important early writing on film genre and genre films published between 1945 and 1969. It includes articles by such notable critics as Susan Sontag, Dwight Macdonald, Siegfried Kracauer, James Agee, André Bazin, Robert Warshow, and Claude Chabrol, as well as essays by scholars in academic disciplines such as history, sociology, and theater. Their writings address major issues in genre studies, including definition, representation, ideology, audiences, and industry practices, across genres ranging from comedy and westerns to horror, science fiction, fantasy, gangster films, and thrillers. The only single-volume source for this early writing on genre films, Notions of Genre will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students of film genre, film history, film theory, cultural studies, and popular culture.

Author / Editor information

Barry Keith Grant is a professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University.

Malisa Kurtz received her PhD from Brock University in Interdisciplinary Humanities.

Reviews

"Original and important. This anthology demonstrates that our immediate predecessors were often highly perceptive and indeed, in some cases, were making a clear case that movies and popular culture of all sorts deserved to be taken seriously. The selection of essays is outstanding."

— Rick Worland, Southern Methodist University, author of The Horror Film: An Introduction

"By bringing together the major critics writing on film in the pre-theory era, this anthology helps to advance the study of cinema genres and also to acquaint new readers to this older tradition of excellent critical commentary."

— Stephen Prince, Virginia Tech, author of Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film and coeditor of An Introduction to Film Genres

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Barry Keith Grant and Malisa Kurtz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Comedy
Chapter One. Comedy’s Greatest Era James Agee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Chapter Two. Silent Film Comedy Siegfried Kracauer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
Chapter Three. Uncle Sam’s Funny Bone Allen Eyles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
Chapter Four. Whatever Happened to Hollywood Comedy Dwight Macdonald Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Chapter Five. The Evolution of the Chase in the Silent Screen Comedy Donald W. McCaffrey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
Chapter Six. From Kops to Robbers: Transformation of Archetypal Figures in the American Cinema of the 1920s and ’30s Carolyn Geduld and Harry Geduld Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Part II. The Western
Chapter Seven. The Psychological Appeal of the Hollywood Western Frederick Elkin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Chapter Eight. The Western, or the American Film Par Excellence André Bazin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Chapter Nine. The Olympian Cowboy Harry Schein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Chapter Ten. The Changing Cowboy: From Dime Novel to Dollar Film George Bluestone Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Chapter Eleven. Sociological Symbolism of the “Adult Western” Martin Nussbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Chapter Twelve. Puritanism Revisited: An Analysis of the Contemporary Screen-Image Western Peter Homans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Part III. The Fantastic
Chapter Thirteen. Supernaturalism in the Movies Parker Tyler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Chapter Fourteen. Reflections on Horror Movies Robert Brustein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Chapter Fifteen. A Brief, Tragical History of the Science Fiction Film Richard Hodgens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Chapter Sixteen. The Imagination of Disaster Susan Sontag Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Chapter Seventeen. Extrapolative Cinema Ivor A. Rogers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
Chapter Eighteen. Even a Man Who Is Pure at Heart: Poetry and Danger in the Horror Film R. H. W. Dillard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Part IV. Crime and Punishment
Chapter Nineteen. The Gangster as Tragic Hero Robert Warshow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Chapter Twenty. Evolution of the Thriller Claude Chabrol Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
Chapter Twenty-One. Toward a Definition of Film Noir Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Chapter Twenty-Two. Paint It Black: The Family Tree of the Film Noir Raymond Durgnat Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
Chapter Twenty-Three. Introduction to The Gangster Film John Baxter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 294

eBook

Published: November 8, 2016
ISBN: 9781477311097