The first daytime dramas began as early as 1930, with Painted Dreams. Programmers soon discovered that housewives often controlled the purse strings, and soaps become an advertiser's gold mine. They now generate more than $900 million in network revenues annually. Around 50 million people (reportedly including congressmen and rock stars as well as two-thirds of all American television-watching women) tune in each weekday afternoon for a dosage of love, loss and libido via ""the soaps."" This scholarly study examines the soap phenomenon from a sociological point of view. Included in the analysis is classic research by Rudolf Arnheim, Herta Hartzog and Helen Kaufman as well as contemporary studies and previously unpublished research. The evolution of popular plotlines and characters, as assessment of reality in today's plots, which people watch soaps and why, specific plotlines for the 13 soaps presently aired, 40+ family trees illustrating program changes, the future of soaps--all are covered.

This collection of essays looks at the question ""What is history?"" and how history is shaped in different socioeconomic contexts. The writers take a transdisciplinary approach, in the belief that everyone who deals with history--including professional historians, novelists, and poets--constructs narratives of the past to make sense of the present as well as to determine their future courses of action. With contributions from a variety of specialists in media studies, literature, history and anthropology, this book breaks new ground in adaptation studies.

This book is a study of Grigory Kozintsev's two cinematic Shakespeare adaptations, Hamlet (Gamlet 1964), and King Lear (Korol Lir 1970). The films are considered in relation to the historical, artistic and cultural contexts in which they appear, as well as the contributions of Dmitri Shostakovich, who wrote the films' scores, and Boris Pasternak, whose translations were used in both films. The films are also analyzed respective to their place in the translation and performance history of Hamlet and King Lear from their first appearances in Tsarist Russian arts and letters; in particular, the ways in which these plays have been used as a means to critique the government and the country's problems in an age in which official censorship was commonplace. Kozintsev's films (as well as his theatrical productions of Hamlet and Lear, which are also analyzed in this study) continue along this trajectory by also providing a means for him and his collaborators to address the oppression, violence and corruption of Soviet society. It was just this sort of covert political protest that finally effected the dissolution and fall of the USSR.

Of all the tales to be found in Boccaccio’s Decameron, the tragic story of King Tancred’s efforts to frustrate the love of his daughter Gismond for Guiscardo, was probably the best known and most popular in Renaissance England. This Collections volume brings together the earliest texts of the first and last pre-1642 plays to deal with the lovers’ story: the Inner Temple tragedy, Gismond of Salern (1568), and a much-revised play probably by amateur Warwickshire dramatist John Newdigate (1620s). It presents the first modern transcription of the Hargrave MS of Gismond of Salern and the first ever printed edition of Newdigate’s untitled play, here named Glausamond and Fidelia. Together, the plays offer fresh proof of the important influence of Boccaccio, and Italian literature on English Renaissance drama. They are also fascinating examples of the period’s amateur drama, of interest to all scholars and students of early modern English theatre. -- .

Horror films, books and video games engage their audiences through combinations of storytelling practices, emotional experiences, cognitive responses and physicality that ignite the sensorium--the sensory mechanics of the body and the intellectual and cognitive functions connected to them. Through analyses of various mediums, this volume explores how the horror genre affects the mind and body of the spectator. Works explored include the films 28 Days Later and Death Proof, the video games Resident Evil 4 and Doom 3, the theme park ride The Revenge of the Mummy, transmedia experiences associated with The Dark Knight and True Blood, and paranormal romance novels featuring Anita Blake and Sookie Stackhouse. By examining how these diverse media generate medium-specific corporeal and sensory responses, it reveals how the sensorium interweaves sensory and intellectual encounters to produce powerful systems of perception.

This work profiles a stellar lineup of talented, versatile character actors who regularly appeared in horror and science fiction films during Hollywood's golden age. Many are well known by genre buffs and casual fans, including Lionel Atwill, John Carradine, Dwight Frye, Rondo Hatton, Dick Miller, J. Carroll Naish, Maria Ouspenskaya, Glenn Strange, Edward Van Sloan, and George Zucco. Also featured are performers not so well known but equally at home in the horror and science fiction field, such as Anthony Carbone, Harry Cording, Rosemary La Planche, Dick Purcell, Elizabeth Russell and Mel Welles. A chapter is devoted to each, complete with a biography and in-depth analyses of his or her best performances, and together demonstrating how important these personalities were to the success of their genre films with audiences and critics alike.

In the mid-20th century, Mickey Spillane was the sensation of not just mystery fiction but publishing itself. The level of sex and violence in his Mike Hammer thrillers (starting with I, The Jury in 1947) broke down long-held taboos and engendered a near hysterical critical backlash. Nonetheless, Spillane's influence has been felt--reflections of Hammer are visible in nearly every subsequent tough guy of fiction and film, including James Bond, Dirty Harry, Shaft, Billy Jack, and Jack Bauer. Spillane's fiction came to the screen in a series of films that include Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and The Girl Hunters (1963) with the author himself playing his private eye. These films, and television series starring Darren McGavin and Stacy Keach respectively, are examined in a lively, knowledgeable fashion by Spillane experts. Included are cast and crew listings, brief biographical entries on key persons, and a lengthy interview with Spillane.

The narrative surrounding the Titanic's voyage, collision, and sinking in April 1912 seems tailor-made for film. With clear categories of gender, class, nationality, and religion, the dominating Titanic myth offers a wealth of motifs ripe for the silver screen--heroism, melodrama, love, despair, pleasure, pain, failure, triumph, memory and eternal guilt. This volume provides a detailed overview of Titanic films from 1912 to the present and analyses the six major Titanic films, including the 1943 national socialist production, the 1953 Hollywood film, the 1958 British docudrama A Night to Remember, the 1979 TV production S.O.S. Titanic, the 1996 mini-series Titanic, and James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster. By showing how each film follows and builds on a pattern of fixed scenes, motifs and details called the ""Titanic code,"" this work yields telling insights into why this specific disaster has maintained such great relevance into the 21st century.

Nineteenth-Century French Drawings explores the history of this medium, and chronicles the remarkable part it has played throughout the past decades at the Cleveland Museum of Art. There are works by such iconic artists as Honoré Daumier, Berthe Morisot and Auguste Renoir, a luminous coloured pencil study by symbolist artist Alexandre Séon and a group of “noir” drawings—named for their use of varied black drawing media—by Henri Fantin-Latour, Albert-Charles Lebourg and Adolphe Appian, among others. Entries illuminate the role of drawing within 41 artists’ works and five essays by leading scholars shed new light on the making and collecting of drawings in France during this extraordinary period. In 19th-century France, drawing expanded from a means of artistic training to an independent medium with rich potential for experimentation. A variety of new materials became available to artists, encouraging figures ranging from Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to Paul Cezanne to reconsider drawing’s place within their practice. Public and private exhibition venues increasingly began to display their works, building an audience attracted by the intimacy of drawings and their unique techniques and subjects.

Luchino Visconti's trilogy of films Ludwig, Death in Venice and The Damned explore the complex relationship between the themes and ideals of German Romanticism and their impact on the catastrophe of the Third Reich. The personality and works of Richard Wagner to a large extent epitomize German Romanticism as a whole, while the writings of Thomas Mann and Friedrich Nietzsche provide the greatest critique of this dark and troubled but sublime and emotionally overwhelming culture. Along with contrasting approaches to this subject by other filmmakers such as Hans-Jurgen Syberberg, Ken Russell and Tony Palmer, this book explores how the preoccupations of the German Romantic movement led to Nazism, and contrasts the ways in which filmmakers have presented this continuum. The book also discuses the impact of Wagner's musical dramas on the art form of the cinema itself.

This unique edition is the result of the second International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network (ITYARN) conference that was held in Malmoe, Sweden, in May 2011 as part of the XVIIth ASSITEJ World Congress and Festival. In fifteen essays that are illustrative of the wide variety as well as of the many opportunities for research in TYA, this book covers six continents, includes quantitative, qualitative, ethnographic/action, and historiographical methods, and highlights critical theory, philosophical discourse, play analysis, and other approaches. The essays deal with a broad range of issues, including representation, cultural contexts, questions of identity, race-, class-, and gender theory, notions of child and childhood, aesthetics, and the influence of media and dominant ideologies. ITYARN aims to further research in the field of theatre for young audiences to contextualize and theorize the lively artistic products for children and youth globally. It is the research network of ASSITEJ, the International Association of Theatre for Children and Youth, which co-produced this publication.

Arthur Barnes--""The 100 Somersault Man""--was the world's greatest acrobat, a legend of the circus. He toured for 23 years with the biggest companies in Britain, Europe and the United States, performing for all the crowned heads, as well as for Abraham Lincoln. This book traces his story as a bright thread of triumphs and tragedies running through the tapestry of the mid-Victorian era, a tapestry made rich by extraordinary events of the day and by the eccentric characters attracted to such a profession as the circus. We follow Barnes as he escapes the doom of the iron foundry by bounding out of the desperate slums of the East End of London at the age of 14 to become the ""champion vaulter of all the world.

Hugh Bonneville is one of Britain's most accomplished actors, whose credits include Downton Abbey, W1A and the Paddington films. 'I don't remember when I last read a book that gave me so many laughs' Christina Patterson, Sunday Times 'Tremendously entertaining' Rachel Cooke, Observer 'A writer of considerable urbanity and wit' Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph 'You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love Hugh even more' Woman & Home Hugh Bonneville is one of Britain's most accomplished actors, familiar to audiences worldwide for his roles in Notting Hill, the Paddington films and Downton Abbey. From getting his big break as Third Shepherd in the school nativity play, to mistaking a Hollywood star for an estate agent, Hugh creates a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen. What is it like working with Judi Dench and Julia Roberts, or playing Robert de Niro's right leg, or not being Gary Oldman, twice? A wickedly funny storyteller, Hugh also writes with poignancy about his father's dementia and of his mother, whose life in the secret service only emerged after her death. Whether telling stories of working with divas, Dames or a bear with a penchant for marmalade, this is a richly entertaining account of his life as an actor.

Ever since the premiere of the small-screen incarnation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997, the television worlds of Joss Whedon--which have grown to include Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse--have acquired a cult following of dedicated fans and inspired curious scholars. The quest for power and control over humans and other animals is a constant theme running throughout all four series. This study explores the myriad natural and supernatural methods Whedon's characters use to achieve power and control over unsuspecting friends and foes, including witchcraft and other paranormal means, love, aggression, and scientific devices such as psychosurgery and psychopharmacology. A catalog of characters and a complete list of episodes for each series completes this valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship on television's ""Whedonverse.

Few theater artists are as revered by their peers as Joseph Chaikin, whose Open Theater is regarded as one of the most influential ensembles to perform on international stages. A glance at the index to this volume reveals the many eminent colleagues and admirers associated with Chaikin in his long and brilliant career. This first bibliographical study of Chaikin explores and documents his activities as actor, director, writer, and teacher, with major sections devoted to productions, live and recorded, and primary and secondary bibliography. The biographical sketch utilizes the assembled bibliographical materials, published and unpublished, including Chaikin's papers at Kent State University Libraries, which are cataloged here for the first time. Printed as an appendix is a previously unpublished letter Chaikin wrote to his company, which effectively expresses aspects of his philosophy and personality.

In the first full-length study of the Concheros dancers, Susanna Rostas explores the experience of this unique group, whose use of dance links rural religious practices with urban post-modern innovation in distinctive ways even within Mexican culture, which is rife with ritual dances. The Concheros blend Catholic and indigenous traditions in their performances, but are not governed by a predetermined set of beliefs; rather, they are bound together by long-standing interpersonal connections framed by the discipline of their tradition. The Concheros manifest their spirituality by means of the dance. Rostas traces how they construct their identity and beliefs, both individual and communal, by its means. The book offers new insights into the experience of dancing as a Conchero while also exploring their history, organisation, and practices. The book provides a new way for audiences to understand the Concheros dance tradition and will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary Mesoamerica. Those studying identity, religion, and tradition will find this social-anthropological work particularly enlightening.

This collection of essays showcases the rich diversity of current writing about Irish theatre. The volume includes perspectives from experts in scenography, physical theatre, dramaturgy and stand-up comedy, as well as academic contributions drawing from anthropology, psychology, sociology, gender studies and performance studies. Exploring plays, events, exhibitions, performances, and rehearsal and realization processes, the essays provide a stimulating analysis of the languages and procedures of theatre in Ireland. The book demonstrates that performance studies and practices are continuing to expand, suggesting that Ireland’s text-centric theatre has begun to cast its net further afield and pointing to the rich possibilities within Irish theatre, scholarship and practice, now and for the future.

From 1880 to 1920, the first truly national visual culture developed in the United States as a result of the completion of the Pacific Railroad. At that time, a new level of invention, reproduction, and distribution of all kinds of images was taking shape. Women, especially young and beautiful ones, found new lives shaped by their participation in that visual culture. This rapidly evolving age left behind the cult of domesticity that reigned in the nineteenth century to give rise to new types of women based on a single feature--a type of hair, skin, dress, or prop--including the Gibson Girl, the sob sister, the stunt girl, the hoochy-coochy dancer, and the bearded lady. Exploring both high and low culture, from the circus and film to newspapers and magazines, this intriguing volume examines depictions of women at the dawn of mass media, depictions that would remain influential throughout the twentieth century.

From 1973 to 1987, Fright Night was a fixture of the late Saturday evening schedule on independent New York television station WOR-TV. A genre fan's nightmare come true, the modestly produced showcase featured horror films both classic and obscure, from Universal's Frankenstein series to such lesser-known delights as Beast of Blood and The Living Coffin. Fright Night suffered no delusions of grandeur, and never claimed to be anything more than what it was: great entertainment on a Saturday night. This affectionate tribute to Fright Night's glory days includes a complete listing of all films shown on the series, as well as discussion of WOR-TV's other horror movie programs from the 1970s and 1980s. Also featured are interviews with the major surviving players, including series creator Lawrence P. Casey, who were responsible for the Fright Night experience.

Tom Mix became a major star in the 1920s, earning over $900,000 for his movie work in 1921. Fox refused, however, to renew his contract in 1927, and that, coupled with the stock market crash of 1929, left him virtually penniless. In 1932 Mix resumed his movie career, making Destry Rides Again, his first ""talkie."" Later he became a circus owner and star. This is the story of Mix's life and career; it includes a comprehensive filmography of his work.

Text & Presentation is an annual anthology of essays devoted to all aspects of theatre and performance scholarship. This new volume represents a selection of the best research presented at the 35th international, interdisciplinary Comparative Drama Conference in Los Angeles. The essays include innovative detective work on Aristophanes's and Aeschylus's plays and discussions of topics including Joe Orton's plays as social protest against the power of psychiatry and the asylum, George Eliot's controversial description of the burlesque spirit as ""fodder for degraded appetites,"" and psychological depictions of young women entering into sexual experience in Liz Lochhead's Dracula, among others.

To both young and old, the circus remains an icon of American entertainment, a wholesome pastime untouched by the passing years. But the modern circus, with its three rings, ringmaster, animals, and acrobats, is the product of nearly three hundred years of evolution. This intriguing work chronicles the history of the American circus from its roots in England through its importation to America to the end of the nineteenth century. It introduces the early pioneers of the circus, addresses business concerns such as management and training, and discusses the development of the show itself, including the incorporation of menageries, the need for animal training and care, the addition of circus music, the use of the tent, and the unique attractions of side shows and freaks. Personal stories of those who made their lives under the big top are woven throughout the narrative, adding an intimate perspective to one of America's most enduring entertainments.

Imagination, Philosophy and the Arts is the first comprehensive collection of papers by philosophers examining the nature of imagination and its role in understanding and making art. Imagination is a central concept in aesthetics with close ties to issues in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language, yet it has not received the kind of sustained, critical attention it deserves. This collection of seventeen brand new essays critically examines just how and in what form the notion of imagination illuminates fundamental problems in the philosophy of art.

Premiering in September of 2006, the weekly NBC television series Heroes was an immediate commercial and critical hit, lasting four successful seasons. Heroes follows a group of interrelated characters who discover they have superhuman powers, with each successive episode exploring how these people react to and utilize their powers for good or for evil. This collection of essays explores a variety of issues surrounding Heroes, examining the series' content, marketing and reception. Also investigated is the show's fusion of "cult" and mainstream elements of television, analyzing its ability to combine so-called lowbrow elements (comic books and superheroes) with a high-quality television form prizing such factors as moral ambiguity and depth of characterization--and what this blending process suggests about the current hybrid state of genre television, and about the medium as a whole.

[Though comic women have existed since the days of Baubo, the mythic figure who used sexual humor to lift the veil of mourning from the goddess Demeter's eyes, they have been neglected by scholars and critics. This pioneering volume tells the stories of five women who have created revolutionary forms of comic performance and discourse that defy the flagrant prejudices about women/feminists. The artists include 16th-century performer Isabella Andreini, 17th-century improviser Catherine Biancolelli, 20th century Italian playwright Franca Rame, and contemporary performance artists Deb Margolin and Kimberly Dark. All create humor that subverts patriarchal modes of representation, conventional notions of gender roles, and stereotypical images of women. Closing with a practical guide for performers and teachers of theater, this work illustrates the life-affirming possibilities of creating empowered communities and initiating social change through comedy, laughter and feminist humor.]