An invaluable introduction to popular film and the way in which it is studied this book brings together the critical approaches and issues that have sought to define popular film from the 1950s to the present day. It includes discussion of mass culture theory and political economy; auteur theory; genre theory; star studies; historical poetics; screen theory; feminism and cultural studies. Written by specialists, "Approaches to popular film" is an ideal textbook for students coming to film theory for the first time.

Horror, The Film Reader brings together key articles to provide a comprehensive resource for students of horror cinema. Mark Jancovich's introduction traces the development of horror film from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to The Blair Witch Project, and outlines the main critical debates. Combining classic and recent articles, each section explores a central issue of horror film, and features an editor's introduction outlining the context of debates. Sections include:
*Theorising horror
*Gender, sexuality and the horror film
*Producing horrors
*Consuming fears
Includes essays by: Harry M. Benshoff, Rhona Berenstein, Noel Carroll, Brigid Cherry, Carol Clover, Barbara Creed, Paul O'Flinn, Joan C. Hawkins, Peter Hutchings, Mark Jancovich, Andrew Tudor, Linda Williams and Robin Wood.

Horror, The Film Reader brings together key articles to provide a comprehensive resource for students of horror cinema. Mark Jancovich's introduction traces the development of horror film from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to The Blair Witch Project, and outlines the main critical debates. Combining classic and recent articles, each section explores a central issue of horror film, and features an editor's introduction outlining the context of debates. Sections include:
* Theorising horror
*Gender, sexuality and the horror film
*Producing horrors
*Consuming fears
Includes essays by: Harry M. Benshoff, Rhona Berenstein, Noel Carroll, Brigid Cherry, Carol Clover, Barbara Creed, Paul O'Flinn, Joan C. Hawkins, Peter Hutchings, Mark Jancovich, Andrew Tudor, Linda Williams and Robin Wood.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203204840

This collection concentrates on the analysis of cult movies, how they are defined, who defines them and the cultural politics of these definitions. The definition of the cult movie relies on a sense of its distinction from the "mainstream" or "ordinary." This also raises issues about the perception of it as an oppositional form of cinema, and of its strained relationships to processes of institutionalization and classification. In other words, cult movie fandom has often presented itself as being in opposition to the academy, commercial film industries and the media more generally, but has been far more dependent on these forms than it has usually been willing to admit. The international roster of essayists range over the full and entertaining gamut of cult films from Dario Argento, Spanish horror and Peter Jackson's New Zealand gorefests to sexploitation, kung fu and sci-fi flicks.

Histories of science fiction often discuss Fritz Lang's ""Metropolis"" as a classic text within the genre - yet the term ""science fiction"" had not been invented at the time of the film's release. If the genre did not have a name, did it exist? Does retroactive assignment to a genre change our understanding of a film? Do films shift in meaning and status as the name of a genre changes meaning over time?These provocative questions are at the heart of this book, whose thirteen essays examine the varying constructions of genre within film, television, and other entertainment media. Collectively, the authors argue that generic labels are largely irrelevant or even detrimental to the works to which they are applied.Part One examines the meanings of genre reveals how the media are involved in the production and dissemination of generic definitions. Part Two considers specific films (or groups of films) and their relationships within various categorizations. Part Three focuses on the closely tied concepts of history and memory as they relate to the perceptions of genre.

A wide-ranging introduction to film history, this anthology covers the history of film from 1895 to the present day. The book is arranged chronologically, and each chapter contains an introduction by the editors on the key developments within the period, followed by a classic piece of historical research about that period. Various types of film history are undertaken in the articles, so that students can become familiar with different types of film historical research. For example, topics include the history of audiences; exhibition; marketing; censorship; aesthetic history; political history; and historical reception studies. The book is therefore designed to provide students with a narrative history spine while simultaneously introducing them to different approaches to the study and research of film history. Concentrating on the plurality of the 'historical turn' in film studies, this book demonstrates that film history is, and should be, about more than simply key films, directors and movements. Key features *Contains a preface that explains the structure and organisation of the book *Chapter introductions provide a chronological sense of international developments *Includes key articles of film history that illustrate differences in methodological approach, and which are devoted both to America and to a wide range of non-American contexts

The 1940s is a lost decade in horror cinema, undervalued and written out of most horror scholarship. This collection revises, reframes, and deconstructs persistent critical binaries that have been put in place by scholarly discourse to label 1940s horror as somehow inferior to a "classical" period or "canonical" mode of horror in the 1930s, especially as represented by the monster films of Universal Studios. The book's four sections re-evaluate the historical, political, economic, and cultural factors informing 1940s horror cinema to introduce new theoretical frameworks and to open up space for scholarly discussion of 1940s horror genre hybridity, periodization, and aesthetics. Chapters focused on Gothic and Grand Guignol traditions operating in forties horror cinema, 1940s proto-slasher films, the independent horrors of the Poverty Row studios, and critical reevaluations of neglected hybrid films such as The Vampire's Ghost (1945) and "slippery" auteurs such as Robert Siodmak and Sam Neufield, work to recover a decade of horror that has been framed as having fallen victim to repetition, exhaustion, and decline.

A wide-ranging introduction to film history, this anthology covers the history of film from 1895 to the present day. The book is arranged chronologically, and each chapter contains an introduction by the editors on the key developments within the period, followed by a classic piece of historical research about that period. Various types of film history are undertaken in the articles, so that students can become familiar with different types of film historical research. For example, topics include the history of audiences; exhibition; marketing; censorship; aesthetic history; political history; and historical reception studies. The book is therefore designed to provide students with a narrative history spine while simultaneously introducing them to different approaches to the study and research of film history. Concentrating on the plurality of the 'historical turn' in film studies, this book demonstrates that film history is, and should be, about more than simply key films, directors and movements. Key features *Contains a preface that explains the structure and organisation of the book *Chapter introductions provide a chronological sense of international developments *Includes key articles of film history that illustrate differences in methodological approach, and which are devoted both to America and to a wide range of non-American contexts

In this book, Mark Jancovich concentrates on the works of three leading American writers - Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate - in order to examine the development of the New Criticism during the late 1920s and early 1930s, and its establishment within the academy in the late 1930s and 1940s. This critical movement managed to transform the teaching and study of English through a series of essays published in journals such as the Southern Review and the Kenyon Review. Jancovich argues that the New Criticism was not an example of bourgeois individualism, as previously held, but that it sprang from a critique of modern capitalist society developed by pre-capitalist classes within the American South. In the process, he clarifies the distinctions between the aims of these three Southern poets from those of the next "generation" of New Critics such as Cleanth Brooks, Warren and Welleck, and Wimsatt and Beardsley. He also claims that the failure on the part of most contemporary critics to identify the movement"s ideological origins and aims has usually meant that these critics continue to operate within the very professional terms of reference established through the New Critical transformations of the academy.

Ranging from the mass culture critics to post-colonial and queer theory, this film reader provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the main theoretical approaches within film studies. It provides students with an opportunity to engage with primary sources in the form of edited extracts from the key critics. It also provides a general introduction and chapter introductions which help to locate the extracts in historical context, and explains their contribution to, and interventions in, debates within the study of film. The intervention of cultural studies is important to much contemporary work in film, and the editors lay particular stress on an awareness of current transformations in approaches to film. Jancovich and Hollows have previously edited another text, "Approaches to Popular Film".

In this book, Mark Jancovich concentrates on the works of three leading American writers - Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate - in order to examine the development of the New Criticism during the late 1920s and early 1930s, and its establishment within the academy in the late 1930s and 1940s. This critical movement managed to transform the teaching and study of English through a series of essays published in journals such as the Southern Review and the Kenyon Review. Jancovich argues that the New Criticism was not an example of bourgeois individualism, as previously held, but that it sprang from a critique of modern capitalist society developed by pre-capitalist classes within the American South. In the process, he clarifies the distinctions between the aims of these three Southern poets from those of the next ‘generation’ of New Critics such as Cleanth Brooks, Warren and Welleck, and Wimsatt and Beardsley. He also claims that the failure on the part of most contemporary critics to identify the movement’s ideological origins and aims has usually meant that these critics continue to operate within the very professional terms of reference established through the New Critical transformations of the academy.

In "Film and Comic Books" contributors analyze the problems of adapting one medium to another; the translation of comics aesthetics into film; audience expectations, reception, and reaction to comic book-based films; and the adaptation of films into comics.

A wide range of comic/film adaptations are explored, including superheroes (Spider-Man), comic strips ("Dick Tracy"), realist and autobiographical comics ("American Splendor," "Ghost World"), and photo-montage comics (Mexico's "El Santo").

Essayists discuss films beginning with the 1978 "Superman." That success led filmmakers to adapt a multitude of comic books for the screen including Marvel's "Uncanny X-Men," the "Amazing Spider-Man," "Blade," and the "Incredible Hulk" as well as alternative graphic novels such as "From Hell," "V for Vendetta," and "Road to Perdition."

Essayists also discuss recent works from Mexico, France, Germany, and Malaysia.

Essays from Timothy P. Barnard, Michael Cohen, Rayna Denison, Martin Flanagan, Sophie Geoffroy-Menoux, Mel Gibson, Kerry Gough, Jonathan Gray, Craig Hight, Derek Johnson, Pascal Lef?vre, Paul M. Malone, Neil Rae, Aldo J. Regalado, Jan van der Putten, and David Wilt

Ian Gordon is associate professor of history and convenor of American studies at the National University of Singapore. Mark Jancovich is professor of film and television studies at the University of East Anglia. Matthew P. McAllister is associate professor of film, video, and media studies at Pennsylvania State University.

In "Film and Comic Books" contributors analyze the problems of adapting one medium to another; the translation of comics aesthetics into film; audience expectations, reception, and reaction to comic book-based films; and the adaptation of films into comics.

A wide range of comic/film adaptations are explored, including superheroes (Spider-Man), comic strips ("Dick Tracy"), realist and autobiographical comics ("American Splendor," "Ghost World"), and photo-montage comics (Mexico's "El Santo").

Essayists discuss films beginning with the 1978 "Superman." That success led filmmakers to adapt a multitude of comic books for the screen including Marvel's "Uncanny X-Men," the "Amazing Spider-Man," "Blade," and the "Incredible Hulk" as well as alternative graphic novels such as "From Hell," "V for Vendetta," and "Road to Perdition."

Essayists also discuss recent works from Mexico, France, Germany, and Malaysia.

Essays from Timothy P. Barnard, Michael Cohen, Rayna Denison, Martin Flanagan, Sophie Geoffroy-Menoux, Mel Gibson, Kerry Gough, Jonathan Gray, Craig Hight, Derek Johnson, Pascal Lef?vre, Paul M. Malone, Neil Rae, Aldo J. Regalado, Jan van der Putten, and David Wilt

Ian Gordon is associate professor of history and convenor of American studies at the National University of Singapore. Mark Jancovich is professor of film and television studies at the University of East Anglia. Matthew P. McAllister is associate professor of film, video, and media studies at Pennsylvania State University.