Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewJorg Schweinitz's study of film stereotypes is impressively comprehensive, admirably rigorous, and appropriately international. It will surely invigorate debates on conventionalized shapes in dominant cinema and well-known patterns of recognition in film genre. Schweinitz also revisits classical and contemporary film theory in provocative ways, opening up this field of possibility and offering new points of departure. -- Eric Rentschler, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University Offering an unusually sophisticated, exhaustively researched and wide-ranging theoretical analysis as well as a series of deftly argued case studies, Schweinitz brings considerable erudition to bear on a subject that has until now often eluded scholarly attention. Film and Stereotype represents a novel contribution to ongoing debates concerning genre, style, national cinema, and identity. -- Noah Isenberg, editor of Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era Film and Stereotype does a masterful job unpacking one of the thorniest concepts in film studies, tracing its multidisciplinary origins with theoretical agility and robust argumentation. This book is indispensable for those interested in the historical, cultural, and industrial utility of stereotypes; Schweinitz's use of theorists such as Bela Balazs and Rudolf Arnheim to reread the stereotype makes an important intervention in the theoretical and textual form of stereotypes. Film and Stereotype offers a rigorous critique of the form, function, and power of stereotypes within both the media industries and the cultural imaginary. -- Alison Griffiths, Baruch College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction Part I. Stereotype Theory: Concepts, Perspectives, and Controversies 1. The Stereotype in Psychology and the Humanities 2. Some Aspects and Levels of Stereotypization in Film 3. The Intellectual Viewpoint Versus the Stereotype in Mass Culture Part II. A Discourse History: The Topic of the "Stereotype" Throughout Film Theory 4. Prelude: Walther Rathenau's Cultural Criticism, Hugo Munsterberg's Euphoric Concept of Film as Art, and the Neglect of the Stereotype 5. Bela Balazs's New Visual Culture, the Tradition of Linguistic Skepticism, and Robert Musil's Notion of the "Formulaic" 6. The Readymade Products of the Fantasy Machine: Rudolf Arnheim, Rene Fulop-Miller, and the Discourse on the "Standardization" of Film 7 The Stereotype as Intelligible Form: Cohen-Seat, Morin, and Semiology 8. Irony and Transf iguration: The Postmodern View of the Stereotype Part III. Film Analysis: Critique and Transfiguration-Three Case Studies 9. McCabe and Buffalo Bill: On the Critical Reflection of Stereotypes in Two Films by Robert Altman 10. Enjoying the Stereotype and Intense Double-Play Acting: The Performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Hudsucker Proxy Epilogue Notes Bibliography Filmography Index
