Description

Book Synopsis

How Hollywood biopics both showcase and modify various notions of what it means to be an American.

Biopics-films that chronicle the lives of famous and notorious figures from our national history-have long been one of Hollywood''s most popular and important genres, offering viewers various understandings of American national identity. Invented Lives, Imagined Communities provides the first full-length examination of US biopics, focusing on key releases in American cinema while treating recent developments in three fields: cinema studies, particularly the history of Hollywood; national identity studies dealing with the American experience; and scholarship devoted to modernity and postmodernity. Films discussed include Houdini, Patton, The Great White Hope, Bound for Glory, Ed Wood, Basquiat, Pollock, Sylvia, Kinsey, Fur, Milk, J. Edgar, and Lincoln, and the book pays special attention to the crucial generic plot along which biopics traverse and showcase American lives, even as they modify the various notions of the national character.

Invented Lives Imagined Communities

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    A Hardback by William H. Epstein, R. Barton Palmer

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      Book details

      Publisher State University of New York Press
      Published 6/25/2016 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN-13 9781438460796
      978-1438460796
      ISBN-10 1438460791

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      How Hollywood biopics both showcase and modify various notions of what it means to be an American.

      Biopics-films that chronicle the lives of famous and notorious figures from our national history-have long been one of Hollywood''s most popular and important genres, offering viewers various understandings of American national identity. Invented Lives, Imagined Communities provides the first full-length examination of US biopics, focusing on key releases in American cinema while treating recent developments in three fields: cinema studies, particularly the history of Hollywood; national identity studies dealing with the American experience; and scholarship devoted to modernity and postmodernity. Films discussed include Houdini, Patton, The Great White Hope, Bound for Glory, Ed Wood, Basquiat, Pollock, Sylvia, Kinsey, Fur, Milk, J. Edgar, and Lincoln, and the book pays special attention to the crucial generic plot along which biopics traverse and showcase American lives, even as they modify the various notions of the national character.

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