Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services
Harvard University Press
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Babel and Babylon
Spectatorship in American Silent Film
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
1994
About this book
Focusing on exemplary moments in the American silent era, Hansen explains how the concept of the spectator evolved as a crucial part of the classical Hollywood paradigm—as one of the new industry’s strategies to integrate ethnically, socially, and sexually differentiated audiences in a modern culture of consumption.
Reviews
Babel and Babylon is a far-reaching book that leads us to new questions about history and theory. It amply proves that early cinema can be one of the most intriguing and productive domains of film study today.
-- Dana Polan Film Criticism
-- Dana Polan Film Criticism
Hansen’s expansive, detailed, and exceptionally erudite study assesses key instances when cinema spectatorship opened up the possibility of articulating the contradictions of female experience.
-- Constance Balides Signs
-- Constance Balides Signs
A bold and strikingly original exploration… Hansen has produced a work that has revolutionized the concept of spectatorship in American silent film and that will be an essential tool for historians and film scholars alike.
-- Leslie Fishbein American Historical Review
-- Leslie Fishbein American Historical Review
An innovative look at the role and impact of class and gender, Hansen’s work significantly realigns many of the issues that have traditionally dominated the study of American silent film.
-- Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr. Journal of American History
-- Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr. Journal of American History
A brilliant study of silent cinema, characterized by meticulous historical scholarship and rigorous and illuminating textual analyses… A work of the first importance in the wider debates about the nature of cultural production and consumption and about texts and reception… This book is a model of what cultural studies ought to be.
-- Richard Dyer, University of Warwick
-- Richard Dyer, University of Warwick
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Acknowledgments
vii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
ix -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction: Cinema Spectatorship and Public Life
1 - I Rebuilding the Tower of Babel: The Emergence of Spectatorship
-
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1 A Cinema in Search of a Spectator: Film-Viewer Relations before Hollywood
23 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2 Early Audiences: Myths and Models
60 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3 Chameleon and Catalyst: The Cinema as an Alternative Public Sphere
90 - II Babel in Babylon: D. W Griffith's Intolerance (1916)
-
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4 Reception, Textual System, and Self-Definition
129 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5 "A Radiant Crazy-Quilt": Patterns of Narration and Address
141 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6 Genesis, Causes, Concepts of History
163 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
7 Film History, Archaeology, Universal Language
173 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
8 Hieroglyphics, Figurations of Writing
188 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
9 Riddles of Maternity
199 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
10 Crisis of Femininity, Fantasies of Rescue
218 - III The Return of Babylon: Rudolph Valentino and Female Spectatorship (1921-1926)
-
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
11 Male Star, Female Fans
245 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
12 Patterns of Vision, Scenarios of Identification
269 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Notes
297 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Illustration Credits
366 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
367
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 1, 2009
eBook ISBN:
9780674038295
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
390
eBook ISBN:
9780674038295
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
