{"product_id":"hollywood-screwball-comedy-19341945-9781501389313","title":"Hollywood Screwball Comedy 19341945","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA 2022 CHOICE Outstanding Academic TitleLove at first sight, whirlwind marriages, break-ups, divorces, remarriage What accounts for the enduring success of the Hollywood madcap comedies of the 1930s?  Directed by masters of comedy (Hawks, LaCava, Leisen, Ruggles...) and featuring the decade's most iconic stars (Colbert, Dunne, Grant, Hepburn...), these films set romantic comedy standards for decades to come. Screwball comedy embarked on two challenging missions: to poke fun at established social norms and to undermine stereotypical depictions of gender roles, putting forward a discourse that postulated the possibility of equality between men and women.   Grégoire Halbout's reexamination of screwball comedy provides a comprehensive overview of this (sub)genre, eschewing the auteurist approach and including minor works never before analyzed through the screwball lens. His book explains how these screwball stories met the expectations of a booming American middle class eager for the liber\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book is smartly written and deeply researched, and it joins foundational work by such scholars of the genre as Stanley Cavell, Kathrina Glitre, and Wes Gehring ... This indispensable book will be valuable for those interested in screwball comedies or Hollywood history. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. * CHOICE *\u003cbr\u003eThe book is smartly written and deeply researched, and it joins foundational work by such scholars of the genre as Stanley Cavell, Kathrina Glitre, and Wes Gehring ... This indispensable book will be valuable for those interested in screwball comedies or Hollywood history. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. * CHOICE *\u003cbr\u003eA rigorous and nuanced work which constantly brings to light the complexities of a highly unstable genre that captured many contemporary ideological challenges … a fresh and insightful perspective. * Miranda *\u003cbr\u003eA rigorous and nuanced work which constantly brings to light the complexities of a highly unstable genre that captured many contemporary ideological challenges … a fresh and insightful perspective. * Miranda *\u003cbr\u003eThe result of Halbout’s insightful analysis is a stimulating appreciation of a beloved genre in American film. * Journal of American Culture *\u003cbr\u003eThe result of Halbout’s insightful analysis is a stimulating appreciation of a beloved genre in American film. * Journal of American Culture *\u003cbr\u003e[The] book will be particularly relevant to scholars of American humor because of its unique interdisciplinary approach to genre studies. It is a much-needed addition to the comedy corpus, for as much as the screwball genre was a reflection of a specific historical moment, Halbout shows that there is also a certain transcendent quality about its style, themes, and democratic aspirations. -- Olympia Kiriakou * Studies in American Humor *\u003cbr\u003e[The] book will be particularly relevant to scholars of American humor because of its unique interdisciplinary approach to genre studies. It is a much-needed addition to the comedy corpus, for as much as the screwball genre was a reflection of a specific historical moment, Halbout shows that there is also a certain transcendent quality about its style, themes, and democratic aspirations. -- Olympia Kiriakou * Studies in American Humor *\u003cbr\u003eSynthesizing major strands of French and English-language scholarship on the theatrical and cinematic traditions of romantic comedy, Grégoire Halbout’s \u003ci\u003eHollywood Screwball Comedy,1934-1945\u003c\/i\u003e offers a fresh and lively reappraisal of Hollywood screwball comedies as a distinctly American film genre. The scope of his approach alone is impressive. Adroitly side-stepping the pitfalls of genre studies that are limited to the inspection of a handful of celebrated films, Halbout identifies and explores an expansive corpus, one with permeable boundaries and in flux throughout the years bridging the Great Depression and the Second World War. With exactness, he also dives deeply into the records of Production Code Administration to demonstrate how evolving censorship practices in Hollywood triggered the emergence of new visual and verbal comic styles. He charts a cultural discourse crisscrossed with contradictory and conflicting voices, echoing public debates about sex, intimacy, and marriage at a time when a democratic mythos was under great strain. Brought to light in these pages are the institutional practices and creative responses through which the dialects and effects of 'screwball' surfaced and flourished on and beyond the screen. * Charles Wolfe, Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA *\u003cbr\u003eSynthesizing major strands of French and English-language scholarship on the theatrical and cinematic traditions of romantic comedy, Grégoire Halbout’s \u003ci\u003eHollywood Screwball Comedy,1934-1945\u003c\/i\u003e offers a fresh and lively reappraisal of Hollywood screwball comedies as a distinctly American film genre. The scope of his approach alone is impressive. Adroitly side-stepping the pitfalls of genre studies that are limited to the inspection of a handful of celebrated films, Halbout identifies and explores an expansive corpus, one with permeable boundaries and in flux throughout the years bridging the Great Depression and the Second World War. With exactness, he also dives deeply into the records of Production Code Administration to demonstrate how evolving censorship practices in Hollywood triggered the emergence of new visual and verbal comic styles. He charts a cultural discourse crisscrossed with contradictory and conflicting voices, echoing public debates about sex, intimacy, and marriage at a time when a democratic mythos was under great strain. Brought to light in these pages are the institutional practices and creative responses through which the dialects and effects of 'screwball' surfaced and flourished on and beyond the screen. * Charles Wolfe, Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA *\u003cbr\u003eInitiated and propelled by the writing of Stanley Cavell, Grégoire Halbout offers here a capacious yet discerning analysis of the remarkably fecund genre known by the disarming, perhaps misleading name “screwball.” Delighting in the glories of taking democratic entertainment seriously, Halbout treats readers to a lively taxonomy of the characteristics and criteria that make these films recognizable, including savvy assessments of the many directors who artfully troped love and sex into conversation—thereby eliding with comic flair the chaste restrictions of the Hays Code. Moreover, despite the madcap and zany attributes of these plots and their characters, pursuits of happiness—in their many incarnations—remain of immanent concern for one and all, on screen and off. In Halbout’s company, we contend with the exigencies of marriage; the charged private and public spaces of intimacy and power; and the vexed romance of democracy. To these ends, Halbout seizes upon the narrative traits that keep these indelible films fresh, while encouraging us to ponder how and why they proliferated. Though readers familiar with Cavell’s contributions will recognize “his films” in the line-up, they will also encounter an expanse of additional works that thrill—placing the achievements of the marquee instances in dialogue with the lesser known. Befitting his signal inspiration, Halbout sustains Cavell’s influential investigation and extends it in dynamic ways, delivering in this volume what amounts to a now-indispensable companion for exploring the moral and aesthetic incitements of the genre—especially among its hilarious and profound exemplars. * David LaRocca, Cornell University, USA and editor of The Thought of Stanley Cavell and Cinema and Movies with Stanley Cavell in Mind *\u003cbr\u003eInitiated and propelled by the writing of Stanley Cavell, Grégoire Halbout offers here a capacious yet discerning analysis of the remarkably fecund genre known by the disarming, perhaps misleading name “screwball.” Delighting in the glories of taking democratic entertainment seriously, Halbout treats readers to a lively taxonomy of the characteristics and criteria that make these films recognizable, including savvy assessments of the many directors who artfully troped love and sex into conversation—thereby eliding with comic flair the chaste restrictions of the Hays Code. Moreover, despite the madcap and zany attributes of these plots and their characters, pursuits of happiness—in their many incarnations—remain of immanent concern for one and all, on screen and off. In Halbout’s company, we contend with the exigencies of marriage; the charged private and public spaces of intimacy and power; and the vexed romance of democracy. To these ends, Halbout seizes upon the narrative traits that keep these indelible films fresh, while encouraging us to ponder how and why they proliferated. Though readers familiar with Cavell’s contributions will recognize “his films” in the line-up, they will also encounter an expanse of additional works that thrill—placing the achievements of the marquee instances in dialogue with the lesser known. Befitting his signal inspiration, Halbout sustains Cavell’s influential investigation and extends it in dynamic ways, delivering in this volume what amounts to a now-indispensable companion for exploring the moral and aesthetic incitements of the genre—especially among its hilarious and profound exemplars. * David LaRocca, Cornell University, USA and editor of The Thought of Stanley Cavell and Cinema and Movies with Stanley Cavell in Mind *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForeword Acknowledgements  \u003cb\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/b\u003e Being happy Line of descent: from remarriage comedy to screwball film Deploying a new approach to an indeterminate and unstable genre A social and political reading of a typically American genre  \u003cb\u003ePart One – The screwball expression: a genre shows its credentials \u003c\/b\u003e Preamble: the fertility of Hollywood comedy in the 1930s  \u003cb\u003eChapter One: Proof of identity\u003c\/b\u003e The origins of the genre 1934, a pivotal year The “Americanization” of fictional sources A matter of language The etymology and the improbable “trajectory” of the term screwball Genre signaling in film discourse and movie reviews  \u003cb\u003eChapter Two: Protagonists: the artisans of screwball comedy\u003c\/b\u003e The directors at the helm The reign of the jack of all trades The director and the “screwballization” of scripts The actors, stars of the genre American actors for American stories The stars, genre reference points Screwball timbres and tones The importance of the background: recurring secondary characters  \u003cb\u003eChapter Three: Narrative tropes and genre categories\u003c\/b\u003e Preliminary decryption Narrative structures: “New Love”, “Old Love” and fornication forestalled Plot types, a descriptive catalogue A first attempt at a delineation of narrative tropes Conditions precedent: zeroing in on the couple The masquerade and the faces of conflict The ordeal of alterity Crises of identity “Cocktails” and genre mixing The impact of current events Tones and subjects: a repetitive and polymorphic genre A generation fades away Shifting centers of interest and changing expectations  \u003cb\u003ePart Two – Screwball discourse: interdiction and indirection\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cb\u003eChapter One: A socio-economic context conducive to censorship\u003c\/b\u003e Hollywood and the consequences of the 1929 financial crisis New audiences, new censors Popular art and popular culture: the ideological straightjacket Men of circumstance take control The censors’ mission and their ideological apparatus An improbable coincidence  \u003cb\u003eChapter Two: Expressions: Screwball comedy and the forms of censorship\u003c\/b\u003e The objective signs A lengthy, comprehensive and conflictual approval process The imprint of censorship on the Hollywood work process Forms of regulation: rhetoric and frames of reference Phraseology of the PCA How the Hays Office intervened Efforts towards an evolving methodology and judicial policy What analytical tools for which interpretation? The “Charter”, jurisprudence and the reinforcement of prohibitions  \u003cb\u003eChapter Three: Content: Ideological scrubbing\u003c\/b\u003e Creation under supervision: a system of prohibitions Purified language to fit the needs of Hollywood’s social project Forbidden images: bodies and behavior The Code, protecting institutions from the screwball menace Echo and mirror: the press’s final seal of approval  \u003cb\u003eChapter Four: Indirect discourse: The invention of the screwball style\u003c\/b\u003e Procedural Delinquency The boomerang effect: censorship becomes fodder for comedy The screenplay for Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, a model of narrative expurgation and lexical attrition The rule-breakers’ arsenal: words and images Wordplay: the ruses and pleasures of screwball language Gags and the advent of disorder The symbolic function of objects From one image to another: the metaphorization of forbidden gestures An unexpected mirror: the amplifying effect of marketing “Screwball Comedy, Sex Comedies”  \u003cb\u003ePart Three – The screwball celebration and the democratic discussion\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cb\u003eChapter One: The screwball New Deal and the society of mutual consent\u003c\/b\u003e The discourse on marriage in 1930s America A consumer society in a civilization of leisure America’s marriage debate “Advice” comes to the rescue of marriage Questioning marriage The failure of authority figures Screwball outlaws and their special arrangements The revolution of modern marriage  \u003cb\u003eChapter Two: The tension of the screwball celebration; preserving the democratic space\u003c\/b\u003e The persistence of the established order Paternal consent and the wife’s return to domesticity The missions of the screwball couple Negotiation between private and public space Escape from society Invasion and living together  \u003cb\u003eConclusion\u003c\/b\u003e The romantic relationship, a reinterpretation of the democratic bond  Appendices Filmography Bibliography Index","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing Plc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359467340119,"sku":"9781501389313","price":28.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781501389313.jpg?v=1754124735","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/hollywood-screwball-comedy-19341945-9781501389313","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}