All that Hollywood Allows

Re-reading Gender in 1950s Melodrama
1. Auflage 1991
ISBN: 978-0-415-07117-8
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 515 g

All that Hollywood Allows explores the representation of gender in popular Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Both a work of feminist film criticism and theory and an analysis of popular culture, this provocative book examines from a cultural studies perspective top-grossing film melodramas, such as A Streetcar Named Desire, From Here to Eternity, East of Eden, Imitation of Life and Picnic.
Stereotypically viewed as a complacent and idyllic time, the 1950s were actually a time of dislocation and great social change. Jackie Byars argues that mass media texts of the period, especially films, provide evidence of society's consuming preoccupation with the domestic sphere - the nuclear family and its values - and she shows how Hollywood melodramas interpreted and extended societal debates concerning family structure, sexual divisions of labour, and gender roles. Her readings of these films assess a variety of critical methodologies and approaches to textual analysis, some central to feminist film studies and some previously bypassed by scholars in the field.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Byars, Jackie

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatersoziologie, Theaterpsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kultursoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Feminismus, Feministische Theorie
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Interkulturelle Kommunikation & Interaktion
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmtheorie, Filmanalyse

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction Saying What Can’t Be Said, Reading What Must Be Read: Feminist Criticism, Melodrama, and Film Studies, Chapter One Cultural Studies: An Alternative for Feminist Film Studies, Chapter Two Re-reading Sociological Criticism: Roles, Stereotypes, and Popular Film Melodramas of the Early 1950s, Chapter Three Re-reading Narrative Structure and Gender: The “Social Problem” Film in the 1950s, Chapter Four Re-reading Psychoanalysis for Feminist Film Studies: The “Family Romance” and “the Gaze” in Female-Oriented Film Melodramas of the 1950s, Chapter Five Race, Class, and Gender: Film Melodramas of the Late 1950s, Epilogue

Über Autor(innen)

Jackie Byars received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and has taught radio, television, and film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bryn Mawr College, and Texas Christion University.