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Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines offers an
entertaining and critical look at the representation of women in
recent movies. Written in a refreshingly accessible style, the book
analyzes over thirty box-office hits. The authors explore the
screen personae of top stars such as Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock,
Meg Ryan, and Ren e Zellweger, as well as independent movie queens
like Parker Posey and TV heroines like Sarah Michelle Gellar of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A must-read book for all film buffs who
are tired of the mixed gender messages of mainstream culture.
"In the Beginning was Napoleon"--"Napoleon and no end": Inspiration
Bonaparte explores German responses to Bonaparte in literature,
philosophy, painting, science, education, music, and film from his
rise to the present. Two hundred years after his death, Napoleon
Bonaparte (1769-1821) continues to resonate as a fascinating,
ambivalent, and polarizing figure. Differences of opinion as to
whether Bonaparte should be viewed as the executor of the
principles of the French Revolution or as the figure who was
principally responsible for their corruption are as pronounced
today as they were at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Contributing to what had been an uneasy German relationship with
the French Revolution, the rise of Bonaparte was accompanied by a
pattern of Franco-German hostilities that inspired both
enthusiastic support and outraged dissent in the German-speaking
states. The fourteen essays that comprise Inspiration Bonaparte
examine the mythologization of Napoleon in German literature of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries and explore the significant
impact of Napoleonic occupation on a broad range of fields
including philosophy, painting, politics, the sciences, education,
and film. As the contributions from leading scholars emphasize, the
contradictory attitudes toward Bonaparte held by so many prominent
German thinkers are a reflection of his enduring status as a figure
through whom the trauma of shattered late-Enlightenment
expectations of sociopolitical progress and evolving concepts of
identity politics is mediated.
Kord and Krimmer investigate the most common male types - cops,
killers, fathers, cowboys, superheroes, spies, soldiers, rogues,
lovers, and losers - by tracing changing concepts of masculinity in
popular Hollywood blockbusters from 1992 to 2008 - the Clinton and
Bush eras - against a backdrop of contemporary political events,
social developments, and popular American myths. Their in-depth
analysis of over sixty films, from The Matrix and Iron Man to
Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings, shows that
movies, far from being mere entertainment, respond directly to
today's social and political realities, from consumerism to "family
values" to the War on Terror.
Kord and Krimmer investigate the most common male types - cops,
killers, fathers, cowboys, superheroes, spies, soldiers, rogues,
lovers, and losers - by tracing changing concepts of masculinity in
popular Hollywood blockbusters from 1992 to 2008 - the Clinton and
Bush eras - against a backdrop of contemporary political events,
social developments, and popular American myths. Their in-depth
analysis of over sixty films, from The Matrix and Iron Man to
Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings, shows that
movies, far from being mere entertainment, respond directly to
today's social and political realities, from consumerism to "family
values" to the War on Terror.
Kord and Krimmer investigate the most common male types - cops,
killers, fathers, cowboys, superheroes, spies, soldiers, rogues,
lovers, and losers - by tracing changing concepts of masculinity in
popular Hollywood blockbusters from 1992 to 2008 - the Clinton and
Bush eras - against a backdrop of contemporary political events,
social developments, and popular American myths. Their in-depth
analysis of over sixty films, from The Matrix and Iron Man to
Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings, shows that
movies, far from being mere entertainment, respond directly to
today's social and political realities, from consumerism to "family
values" to the War on Terror.
A comprehensive reconsideration of the myth of Goethe's Weimar,
occasioned by the 1999 celebrations of Goethe's 250th birthday. The
1999 celebrations of Goethe's two hundred and fiftieth birthday and
the city's designation as Culture City of Europe give rise to this
comprehensive look at the myth of Goethe's Weimar and the ways it
has been packaged. Some of the most prominent North American
Germanists have delved into archives and forgotten texts to reveal
a troubled locus of culture, commodification, and ideological
projection. Goethe's presence in Weimar receives new currency
inexplorations of consumer culture and the fashioning of bourgois
taste; women artists and the market; portrait busts and their
display practices; Anna Amalia and musical collaboration;
masquerades and cross-dressing; Goechhausen and the Weimar
Grotesque; Goethe's views on soldiering and acting; propaganda and
human rights.
Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (1995) was a commercial and critical
success, but it is Gilliam's least understood film, even on the
basic plot level. Aside from recognizable debts to specific films
such as La Jetee (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964), 12 Monkeys
plays with a number of genres: apocalypse and postapocalypse
movies, sci-fi, nuclear noir, and what is becoming known as "geek
dystopia." This volume in the Constellations series examines
Gilliam's film-and briefly the TV series based on it-in the context
of post-apocalypse movies and with an eye to the film's major
themes, including mental illness, conspiracy theories, the
impossibility of human closeness, and the nature of reality. It is
the first to read 12 Monkeys's portrayal of time travel in light of
Einstein's ideas about time and to ask what answers these ideas
suggest to the film's most basic philosophical predicament: the
problem of free will versus determinism.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard and
co-authored by Goddard and Joss Whedon of Buffy-fame, was famously
described by co-author Whedon as his ‘loving hate letter’ to
horror. Interviews with Whedon reveal that his struggles with
modern cinematic horror are not merely emotional, but intensely
philosophical. This book is the first to read Cabin as a
philosophical metatext that asks what horror offers audiences and
why audiences accept. Like any good philosophy, the film offers no
answers but raises questions: what ‘choices’ are possible in a
pre-determined universe? How do we, the audience, see the victims
of violence, and with what ethical consequences? And finally, the
most fraught question of all: why do we keep looking?
The way deviant women - murderesses, witches, vampires - are
perceived and represented reveals much about what a society
considers the norm for acceptable female behaviour. Drawing on
extensive archival records and published texts, Susanne Kord
investigates the stories of eight famous murderesses in Germany as
they were told in legal, psychological, philosophical and literary
writings. Kord interrogates the role of representation in legal
judgment and the way the emancipation of women was perceived to be
linked to their crimes. She demonstrates how perceptions of normal
and criminal women permeated not only legal thought but also
seemingly unrelated cultural spheres - from poetry, philosophy and
physiognomy to early psychological profiling. A major work of
German cultural history, this highly original book raises
thought-provoking questions about eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century gender norms in ways that continue to resonate
today.
The way deviant women - murderesses, witches, vampires - are
perceived and represented reveals much about what a society
considers the norm for acceptable female behaviour. Drawing on
extensive archival records and published texts, Susanne Kord
investigates the stories of eight famous murderesses in Germany as
they were told in legal, psychological, philosophical and literary
writings. Kord interrogates the role of representation in legal
judgment and the way the emancipation of women was perceived to be
linked to their crimes. She demonstrates how perceptions of normal
and criminal women permeated not only legal thought but also
seemingly unrelated cultural spheres - from poetry, philosophy and
physiognomy to early psychological profiling. A major work of
German cultural history, this highly original book raises
thought-provoking questions about eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century gender norms in ways that continue to resonate
today.
First comparative study of an unlikely group of authors:
18th-century women peasants. This is the first comparative study of
a highly unlikely group of authors: eighteenth-century women
peasants in England, Scotland, and Germany, women who, as a rule,
received little or no formal education and lived by manual labor,
many of them in dire poverty. Among them are the English
washerwoman Mary Collier, the English domestic servants Elizabeth
Hands and Molly Leapor, the German cowherd Anna Louisa Karsch, the
Scottish diarywoman Janet Little, theScottish domestic servant
Christian Milne, and the English milkmaid Ann Cromartie Yearsley.
Their literature is here linked with one of the major
eighteenth-century aesthetic trends in all three countries, the
Natural Genius craze, which culminated in highland primitivism in
Scotland and England, and in the Sturm und Drang in Germany. Kord's
analysis of the peasant women's works and the bourgeois response
enables us to find new answers to questionsthat have centrally
influenced our thinking about what makes art Art. Kord's book
provides a fresh look at some of this fascinating literature, and
at the roles and attitudes of the lower classes and of women in the
Art world of the day. It also advances a revolutionary thesis: that
the eighteenth-century bourgeoisie established itself as the
dominant cultural class not primarily, as is commonly held, in
opposition to aristocratic culture, but more importantly through
its dissociation from and suppression of lower-class art forms.
Susanne Kord is Professor and Head of the Department of German at
University College London. Her book Little Detours: The Letters and
Plays of Luise Gottsched was published by Camden House in 2000.
Click here to read an interview with Susanne Kord (Word document
25KB)
Today, a multiplicity of feminist approaches has become an integral
part of the fields of German literary and cultural studies. This
comprehensive reference provides a much needed synthesis of the
contribution women have made to German literature and culture. In
entries for more than 500 topics, the volume surveys literary
periods, epochs, and genres; critical approaches and theories;
important authors and works; female stereotypes; laws and
historical developments; literary concepts and themes; and
organizations and archives relevant to women and women's studies.
Each entry offers a concise identification of the term, a
discussion of its significance, and a bibliography of works for
further reading. Today, a multiplicity of feminist approaches has
become an integral part of the fields of German literary and
cultural studies. While biographical works on women writers exist,
this is the first reference to synthesize the wealth of feminist
scholarship in German studies. While existing reference works focus
exclusively on women authors, this volume contains numerous topical
entries and covers the role of women in German literature and
culture from the Middle Ages to the present day. Included are
alphabetically arranged entries on more than 500 topics. While some
entries are provided for important women writers and other
individuals, the bulk of the volume provides information on
literary periods, epochs, and genres; critical approaches and
theories; female stereotypes; laws and historical developments;
literary concepts and themes; and organizations and archives
relevant to women and women's studies. Each entry includes a brief
identification of the subject, a discussion of feminist thought on
the topic, and a brief bibliography. Entries are written by
numerous contributors and reflect a range of critical/theoretical
approaches.
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Twilight (Paperback)
Susanne Kord; Elsa Bernstein
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R821
Discovery Miles 8 210
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Elsa Bernstein lived at the center of Munich's cultural life from
the 1890s into the next century. Her literary salon was frequented
by such authors as Rainer Maria Rilke, Theodor Fontane, Henrik
Ibsen, and Thomas Mann. Her plays, written under the pseudonym
Ernst Rosmer, are noteworthy for their unconventional female
figures, uninhibited language, taboo subjects, and realistic
detail. Susanne Kord, the editor and translator of Twilight,
discusses the reception of Bernstein's works—at first
enthusiastic, then increasingly sexist—and the theme, in
Twilight, of the culturally sanctioned oppression of women. In this
naturalist drama, a woman eye surgeon treats the daughter of a man
who is prejudiced against educated women. Her successful treatment
wins the father's affection for her, and they fall in love. She is
ready to give up medicine for wedded bliss—her wish is to become
"very happily stupid—but finds misery instead.
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