Bill Angus
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474432917
- eISBN:
- 9781474459648
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474432917.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Intelligence and in the Early Modern Theatre explores intrinsic connections between early modern intelligencers and metadrama in the plays of Shakespeare’s contemporaries.
It offers insight into why ...
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Intelligence and in the Early Modern Theatre explores intrinsic connections between early modern intelligencers and metadrama in the plays of Shakespeare’s contemporaries.
It offers insight into why the early modern stage abounds with informer and intelligencer figures. Analysing both the nature of intelligence at the time and the metadrama that such characters generate, the book highlights the significance of intrigue and corruption to dramatic narrative and structure. This study of metadrama reveals some of the most fundamental questions being posed about the legitimacy of authority, authorship, and audience interpretation in this seminal era of English drama.Less
Intelligence and in the Early Modern Theatre explores intrinsic connections between early modern intelligencers and metadrama in the plays of Shakespeare’s contemporaries.
It offers insight into why the early modern stage abounds with informer and intelligencer figures. Analysing both the nature of intelligence at the time and the metadrama that such characters generate, the book highlights the significance of intrigue and corruption to dramatic narrative and structure. This study of metadrama reveals some of the most fundamental questions being posed about the legitimacy of authority, authorship, and audience interpretation in this seminal era of English drama.
Marcus Nordlund
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474418973
- eISBN:
- 9781474418997
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474418973.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
The Shakespearean Inside is a study of all soliloquies and solo asides in Shakespeare’s complete plays. The first step in the research process was the creation of the Shakespearean Inside Database ...
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The Shakespearean Inside is a study of all soliloquies and solo asides in Shakespeare’s complete plays. The first step in the research process was the creation of the Shakespearean Inside Database (SID), where these speeches were annotated according to variables of genuine literary interest such as act, dramatic subgenre, probable time of composition, dramatic speech acts, selected figures of speech and character attributes such as gender or class. Such comprehensive and detailed data makes it possible to generalise dependably about Shakespeare’s authorial habits, and by extension, to identify situations where the author departs in interesting ways from his authorial habits. The Shakespearean Inside uses these broad patterns and significant exceptions as a backdrop for fresh interpretations of various Shakespeare plays, from early works such as The Taming of the Shrew and Two Gentlemen of Verona to mature tragedies like Hamlet and late plays such as The Tempest and The Two Noble Kinsmen.Less
The Shakespearean Inside is a study of all soliloquies and solo asides in Shakespeare’s complete plays. The first step in the research process was the creation of the Shakespearean Inside Database (SID), where these speeches were annotated according to variables of genuine literary interest such as act, dramatic subgenre, probable time of composition, dramatic speech acts, selected figures of speech and character attributes such as gender or class. Such comprehensive and detailed data makes it possible to generalise dependably about Shakespeare’s authorial habits, and by extension, to identify situations where the author departs in interesting ways from his authorial habits. The Shakespearean Inside uses these broad patterns and significant exceptions as a backdrop for fresh interpretations of various Shakespeare plays, from early works such as The Taming of the Shrew and Two Gentlemen of Verona to mature tragedies like Hamlet and late plays such as The Tempest and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
Stephen Cushman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469625331
- eISBN:
- 9781469625355
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625331.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
Stephen Cushman extends Levin’s coverage with an examination of the Crater in recent fiction and film. Using Charles Frazier’s best-selling Cold Mountain (1997), Anthony Minghella’s cinematic version ...
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Stephen Cushman extends Levin’s coverage with an examination of the Crater in recent fiction and film. Using Charles Frazier’s best-selling Cold Mountain (1997), Anthony Minghella’s cinematic version of the novel (2003), Duane Schultz’s Glory Enough for All (1993), and Richard Slotkin’s The Crater (1980), Cushman, who is a poet and a historian, explores stylistic choices, differences between written and spoken language in the 19th century, the challenge and potential reward of mining historical sources to create fictional treatments, and the importance of audience. Cushman’s discussion of Slotkin’s handling of black characters and interweaving of historical, literary, and political sensibilities has implications far beyond the topic and texts of the essay.Less
Stephen Cushman extends Levin’s coverage with an examination of the Crater in recent fiction and film. Using Charles Frazier’s best-selling Cold Mountain (1997), Anthony Minghella’s cinematic version of the novel (2003), Duane Schultz’s Glory Enough for All (1993), and Richard Slotkin’s The Crater (1980), Cushman, who is a poet and a historian, explores stylistic choices, differences between written and spoken language in the 19th century, the challenge and potential reward of mining historical sources to create fictional treatments, and the importance of audience. Cushman’s discussion of Slotkin’s handling of black characters and interweaving of historical, literary, and political sensibilities has implications far beyond the topic and texts of the essay.
Jean-François Cornu
Carol O’ (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0016
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This concluding chapter goes beyond summing up the main issues addressed in the volume. It emphasises how its methodology was designed to foster an awareness of the significant stakes of film ...
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This concluding chapter goes beyond summing up the main issues addressed in the volume. It emphasises how its methodology was designed to foster an awareness of the significant stakes of film translation history for film history in general. It provides further leads to expand and deepen our knowledge of translated films as essential elements of film history and the film-going experience. A core element of the volume, key archival issues include the accurate identification and cataloguing of prints of translated films: silent films with localised intertitles, dubbed and subtitled versions of talking films. The editors remind the readers how they intend the volume to be a first step in identifying the material aspect of film translation history, and sharing the findings and related excitement with the general public.Less
This concluding chapter goes beyond summing up the main issues addressed in the volume. It emphasises how its methodology was designed to foster an awareness of the significant stakes of film translation history for film history in general. It provides further leads to expand and deepen our knowledge of translated films as essential elements of film history and the film-going experience. A core element of the volume, key archival issues include the accurate identification and cataloguing of prints of translated films: silent films with localised intertitles, dubbed and subtitled versions of talking films. The editors remind the readers how they intend the volume to be a first step in identifying the material aspect of film translation history, and sharing the findings and related excitement with the general public.
Michelle Levy
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474457064
- eISBN:
- 9781474481205
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474457064.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
Although we have more literary manuscripts from the Romantic period than for any previous period, these manuscripts have been consulted chiefly for the textual evidence they provide. This book begins ...
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Although we have more literary manuscripts from the Romantic period than for any previous period, these manuscripts have been consulted chiefly for the textual evidence they provide. This book begins the work of unearthing the alternative histories manuscripts tell us about British Romantic literary culture: describing the practices by which they were written, shared, altered and preserved; exploring the functions they served as instruments of expression and sociability; and explicating the migration of texts between the copying technologies of script and print. Deploying a range of methodologies, including quantitative approaches, it considers both literary manuscripts of texts that went unprinted during the lifetimes of their creators as well as those that were printed, presenting a capacious account of how handwritten literary documents were shared, copied, read, and valued. It describes the material processes that brought these manuscripts to audiences small and large, and preserved them for future generations. This book situates manuscript practices within an expanding print marketplace, arguing that the realms of script and print interacted to nurture and transform the period’s literary culture. Providing a comprehensive analysis of the values ascribed to literary manuscripts and the practices involved in their creation and use, this study illuminates the complex entanglements between various media. It concludes with an examination of the ongoing transformations of Romantic literary manuscripts, by textual scholars and digital humanists.Less
Although we have more literary manuscripts from the Romantic period than for any previous period, these manuscripts have been consulted chiefly for the textual evidence they provide. This book begins the work of unearthing the alternative histories manuscripts tell us about British Romantic literary culture: describing the practices by which they were written, shared, altered and preserved; exploring the functions they served as instruments of expression and sociability; and explicating the migration of texts between the copying technologies of script and print. Deploying a range of methodologies, including quantitative approaches, it considers both literary manuscripts of texts that went unprinted during the lifetimes of their creators as well as those that were printed, presenting a capacious account of how handwritten literary documents were shared, copied, read, and valued. It describes the material processes that brought these manuscripts to audiences small and large, and preserved them for future generations. This book situates manuscript practices within an expanding print marketplace, arguing that the realms of script and print interacted to nurture and transform the period’s literary culture. Providing a comprehensive analysis of the values ascribed to literary manuscripts and the practices involved in their creation and use, this study illuminates the complex entanglements between various media. It concludes with an examination of the ongoing transformations of Romantic literary manuscripts, by textual scholars and digital humanists.
Anneli Lehtisalo
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780748693184
- eISBN:
- 9781474412223
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748693184.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Palme and Pääministeri can be considered exceptional films in their respective national contexts. Politics and public figures have not been a typical subject for contemporary feature films in Sweden ...
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Palme and Pääministeri can be considered exceptional films in their respective national contexts. Politics and public figures have not been a typical subject for contemporary feature films in Sweden or in Finland, although similar topics have thrived in Anglo-American media culture. Films like The Deal (UK, 2003), Looking for Fidel (USA, Brazil, 2004), The Queen (UK, France, Italy, 2006) and Margaret (UK, 2009) have depicted the political past and present by portraying the experiences or actions of known politicians in different generic modes, such as documentary dramas, documentaries and fictional biographical films.
The film Palme differentiates itself in the Swedish context with its extremely controversial main character and sensitive topic. In Finland, as well, politicians have rarely been depicted in recent years. The documentary drama Pääministeri exemplifies such Finnish films. Although the docudramatic mode was not unprecedented in Finland, Pääministeri exemplified a new, international trend in television production by depicting a dramatised account of a living person and a relatively recent political incident.Less
Palme and Pääministeri can be considered exceptional films in their respective national contexts. Politics and public figures have not been a typical subject for contemporary feature films in Sweden or in Finland, although similar topics have thrived in Anglo-American media culture. Films like The Deal (UK, 2003), Looking for Fidel (USA, Brazil, 2004), The Queen (UK, France, Italy, 2006) and Margaret (UK, 2009) have depicted the political past and present by portraying the experiences or actions of known politicians in different generic modes, such as documentary dramas, documentaries and fictional biographical films.
The film Palme differentiates itself in the Swedish context with its extremely controversial main character and sensitive topic. In Finland, as well, politicians have rarely been depicted in recent years. The documentary drama Pääministeri exemplifies such Finnish films. Although the docudramatic mode was not unprecedented in Finland, Pääministeri exemplified a new, international trend in television production by depicting a dramatised account of a living person and a relatively recent political incident.
Su Holmes
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748627523
- eISBN:
- 9780748671212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748627523.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This ...
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Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This chapter seeks to address this neglect. Moving from the early broadcast origins of the quiz show up until the advent of ‘interactive’ television, it considers the ways in which the viewer at home has been encouraged to participate. It then moves on to explore how fan cultures on the internet offer insights into audience interaction with the quiz show (and its cultural politics). But as such fans are also often contestants, the chapter returns to the questions of ‘performance’ and ‘authenticity’ examined in Chapter 5.Less
Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This chapter seeks to address this neglect. Moving from the early broadcast origins of the quiz show up until the advent of ‘interactive’ television, it considers the ways in which the viewer at home has been encouraged to participate. It then moves on to explore how fan cultures on the internet offer insights into audience interaction with the quiz show (and its cultural politics). But as such fans are also often contestants, the chapter returns to the questions of ‘performance’ and ‘authenticity’ examined in Chapter 5.
Paul Lauter
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195055931
- eISBN:
- 9780197560228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195055931.003.0010
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
During the last twenty years the opportunities and challenges to teach nineteenth-century American women writers have widened almost beyond the ...
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During the last twenty years the opportunities and challenges to teach nineteenth-century American women writers have widened almost beyond the comprehension of those trained in previous decades. When I was in graduate school in the 1950s at Indiana and Yale, we read Emily Dickinson. Period. Today, that would be considered a scandal. The changes have been great, and good, but they have not been without problems. In this chapter I address a number of what I perceive as significant issues in teaching nineteenth-century American women writers. These I have named the problem of texts, the problem of history, the problem of context, the problem of subject, the problem of form, the problem of difference, and the problem of standards. As will be plain, the names are occasionally arbitrary and the categories somewhat overlap, but they may provide frameworks useful not only for those of us who were expected to know no more than Dickinson, but for those expecting to teach no less than Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Lydia Maria Child. As recently as five years ago, a comprehensive course on nineteenth-century American women writers could only be taught by copious use of the copying machine. For if you wanted your students to know anything by Harper or Child—or even anything about them—you had no choice. That is, beyond the brief anthology selections of seventeen writers (including Harper) one finds in Gilbert and Gubar’s Literature by Women, the nine (spread over two volumes) in the Norton Anthology of American Literature, or the twelve in the recent Harper American Literature, few texts were available. The only piece of Child’s writing then in print was an excerpt from Hobomok (1824) in Lucy Freibert and Barbara White’s useful volume called Hidden Hands. Apart from that book, only Judith Fetterley’s pioneering 1985 collection, Provisions: A Reader from 19th-century American Women, had resurrected such women, and others like Caroline Kirkland, Fanny Fern and Alice Cary, from oblivion.
Less
During the last twenty years the opportunities and challenges to teach nineteenth-century American women writers have widened almost beyond the comprehension of those trained in previous decades. When I was in graduate school in the 1950s at Indiana and Yale, we read Emily Dickinson. Period. Today, that would be considered a scandal. The changes have been great, and good, but they have not been without problems. In this chapter I address a number of what I perceive as significant issues in teaching nineteenth-century American women writers. These I have named the problem of texts, the problem of history, the problem of context, the problem of subject, the problem of form, the problem of difference, and the problem of standards. As will be plain, the names are occasionally arbitrary and the categories somewhat overlap, but they may provide frameworks useful not only for those of us who were expected to know no more than Dickinson, but for those expecting to teach no less than Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Lydia Maria Child. As recently as five years ago, a comprehensive course on nineteenth-century American women writers could only be taught by copious use of the copying machine. For if you wanted your students to know anything by Harper or Child—or even anything about them—you had no choice. That is, beyond the brief anthology selections of seventeen writers (including Harper) one finds in Gilbert and Gubar’s Literature by Women, the nine (spread over two volumes) in the Norton Anthology of American Literature, or the twelve in the recent Harper American Literature, few texts were available. The only piece of Child’s writing then in print was an excerpt from Hobomok (1824) in Lucy Freibert and Barbara White’s useful volume called Hidden Hands. Apart from that book, only Judith Fetterley’s pioneering 1985 collection, Provisions: A Reader from 19th-century American Women, had resurrected such women, and others like Caroline Kirkland, Fanny Fern and Alice Cary, from oblivion.
Paul Lauter
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195055931
- eISBN:
- 9780197560228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195055931.003.0018
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
These are times which may not yet try our souls, but surely they tempt our spirits. It was but a few years ago that the current drug czar, then chairman of ...
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These are times which may not yet try our souls, but surely they tempt our spirits. It was but a few years ago that the current drug czar, then chairman of the federal agency dispensing opportunity to humanists, initiated a public campaign to reestablish as the basis of humanistic study a five, or maybe a two-and-a-half foot shelf of great books. These would, presumably, teach us, or at least the youth consigned to us, the central virtues: to quote William Bennett, “not to betray your friends, your God or your country.” Across Washington, the National Institute of Education issued a report suggesting that American higher education suffered from a deep head cold that, were it not properly treated, could easily develop into pneumonia. The treatment, among other things, was an expansion of the liberal arts, and perhaps a return to old-fashioned general education and distribution requirements. Dutifully pursuing the theme, reports of prestigious private organizations like the Association of American Colleges sounded the trumpet of reform. And then, as if in answer to these calls, President Reagan appointed a humanist, an academic, the very initiator of this campaign to revive the humanities and the study of Western civilization as Secretary of Education. And not, as it became apparent, to preside over the dismemberment of that federal department, but to reestablish in education traditional American virtues. It seemed like a humanist's dream, this federally-sanctioned campaign to restore the importance of our disciplines, to “place at the heart of the college curriculum” the “study of the humanities and Western civilization,” and a colleague in high place to put money behind the mouth. And besides, for many of us the very notion of reviving general education requirements, and especially the study of Western civilization, is itself appealing, regardless of money or power. So perhaps it would seem best not to look a gift horse too closely in the mouth, even if the emerging winds bring more than a whiff of sectarian values.
Less
These are times which may not yet try our souls, but surely they tempt our spirits. It was but a few years ago that the current drug czar, then chairman of the federal agency dispensing opportunity to humanists, initiated a public campaign to reestablish as the basis of humanistic study a five, or maybe a two-and-a-half foot shelf of great books. These would, presumably, teach us, or at least the youth consigned to us, the central virtues: to quote William Bennett, “not to betray your friends, your God or your country.” Across Washington, the National Institute of Education issued a report suggesting that American higher education suffered from a deep head cold that, were it not properly treated, could easily develop into pneumonia. The treatment, among other things, was an expansion of the liberal arts, and perhaps a return to old-fashioned general education and distribution requirements. Dutifully pursuing the theme, reports of prestigious private organizations like the Association of American Colleges sounded the trumpet of reform. And then, as if in answer to these calls, President Reagan appointed a humanist, an academic, the very initiator of this campaign to revive the humanities and the study of Western civilization as Secretary of Education. And not, as it became apparent, to preside over the dismemberment of that federal department, but to reestablish in education traditional American virtues. It seemed like a humanist's dream, this federally-sanctioned campaign to restore the importance of our disciplines, to “place at the heart of the college curriculum” the “study of the humanities and Western civilization,” and a colleague in high place to put money behind the mouth. And besides, for many of us the very notion of reviving general education requirements, and especially the study of Western civilization, is itself appealing, regardless of money or power. So perhaps it would seem best not to look a gift horse too closely in the mouth, even if the emerging winds bring more than a whiff of sectarian values.
Kristyn Gorton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624171
- eISBN:
- 9780748670956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624171.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the ...
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This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the history of audience research is characterised by a division between powerful media and powerful viewers; that is, between understanding the media as capable of influencing and therefore affecting viewers and understanding viewers as capable of influencing and therefore affecting the media. This chapter also includes new developments in audience research.Less
This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the history of audience research is characterised by a division between powerful media and powerful viewers; that is, between understanding the media as capable of influencing and therefore affecting viewers and understanding viewers as capable of influencing and therefore affecting the media. This chapter also includes new developments in audience research.
Roberta Wue
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888208463
- eISBN:
- 9789888313280
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208463.003.0002
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Addresses Shanghai painting through the fashionable painted fan. Often overlooked because of its modest size and ambitions, the fan’s identity as a mobile image and object of self-adornment boosted ...
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Addresses Shanghai painting through the fashionable painted fan. Often overlooked because of its modest size and ambitions, the fan’s identity as a mobile image and object of self-adornment boosted its popularity in late Qing Shanghai, appealing to consumer tastes for flamboyant display and conspicuous consumption. This chapter examines the ways in which the painted fan embodied Shanghai School painting through the use of popular subjects, dynamic styles and compositions, and its fusion of accessory and artwork. The fan is also examined as a fashionable and sought-after commodity, retailed and distributed through Shanghai’s glamorous fan and letter-paper shops, contributing to the growth of the city’s vigorous art market for an urban middle-class clientele.Less
Addresses Shanghai painting through the fashionable painted fan. Often overlooked because of its modest size and ambitions, the fan’s identity as a mobile image and object of self-adornment boosted its popularity in late Qing Shanghai, appealing to consumer tastes for flamboyant display and conspicuous consumption. This chapter examines the ways in which the painted fan embodied Shanghai School painting through the use of popular subjects, dynamic styles and compositions, and its fusion of accessory and artwork. The fan is also examined as a fashionable and sought-after commodity, retailed and distributed through Shanghai’s glamorous fan and letter-paper shops, contributing to the growth of the city’s vigorous art market for an urban middle-class clientele.
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The cusp of the 1980s and 1990s saw the crystallisation in the United Kingdom of a debate — or, more precisely, a critique — which rapidly came to dominate academic discussion of recent cinematic ...
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The cusp of the 1980s and 1990s saw the crystallisation in the United Kingdom of a debate — or, more precisely, a critique — which rapidly came to dominate academic discussion of recent cinematic representations of the past, particularly but not solely in the British context: the critique of so-called ‘heritage films’ or ‘heritage cinema’. This book explores, by empirical means, the scholarly lacuna around the audiences who watch and enjoy heritage films. The book's primary source for this purpose is the Heritage Audience Survey, a questionnaire-based study conducted in the late 1990s to generate an analysis of the demographic characteristics and social identities, film viewing habits, film tastes, and wider attitudes and pleasures of 92 members of the UK film audiences for period films.Less
The cusp of the 1980s and 1990s saw the crystallisation in the United Kingdom of a debate — or, more precisely, a critique — which rapidly came to dominate academic discussion of recent cinematic representations of the past, particularly but not solely in the British context: the critique of so-called ‘heritage films’ or ‘heritage cinema’. This book explores, by empirical means, the scholarly lacuna around the audiences who watch and enjoy heritage films. The book's primary source for this purpose is the Heritage Audience Survey, a questionnaire-based study conducted in the late 1990s to generate an analysis of the demographic characteristics and social identities, film viewing habits, film tastes, and wider attitudes and pleasures of 92 members of the UK film audiences for period films.
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter investigates contemporary audiences for period films, specifically, the Heritage Audience Survey participants, in the United Kingdom from a range of perspectives. It describes the ...
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This chapter investigates contemporary audiences for period films, specifically, the Heritage Audience Survey participants, in the United Kingdom from a range of perspectives. It describes the development, design, methodological rationale and practicalities (and limitations) of the Heritage Audience Survey itself. In view of the centrality of class ideologies and matters of class culture, the wider components of identity and the formation of middle-brow ‘good taste’ to the heritage-film debate and its assumptions about film audiences, a defining feature of this book is that it is as interested in the ‘intertextual organisation’ of the audience members it studies as it is in their readings and uses of heritage films. The survey is simultaneously a study of respondents' current and recent film viewing habits, film tastes and attitudes in the late 1990s, but one which is able to situate these historically and contextually in relation to the cinematic and cultural-political context of the 1980s heritage debate, the late 1990s ‘present’ of the survey, and points in between.Less
This chapter investigates contemporary audiences for period films, specifically, the Heritage Audience Survey participants, in the United Kingdom from a range of perspectives. It describes the development, design, methodological rationale and practicalities (and limitations) of the Heritage Audience Survey itself. In view of the centrality of class ideologies and matters of class culture, the wider components of identity and the formation of middle-brow ‘good taste’ to the heritage-film debate and its assumptions about film audiences, a defining feature of this book is that it is as interested in the ‘intertextual organisation’ of the audience members it studies as it is in their readings and uses of heritage films. The survey is simultaneously a study of respondents' current and recent film viewing habits, film tastes and attitudes in the late 1990s, but one which is able to situate these historically and contextually in relation to the cinematic and cultural-political context of the 1980s heritage debate, the late 1990s ‘present’ of the survey, and points in between.
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter analyses the demographic backgrounds of respondents of the Heritage Audience Survey and a wider range of indicators of identity, with some comparative reference to the demographics of ...
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This chapter analyses the demographic backgrounds of respondents of the Heritage Audience Survey and a wider range of indicators of identity, with some comparative reference to the demographics of the wider cinema audience in the 1990s (and the thinner existing evidence on the demographics of film audiences in the United Kingdom for specific period films) as established in the limited publicly available industry sources. The chapter identifies the distinguishing features of the two subsamples, highlighting those most resonant in relation to the heritage-film debate, and those of likely relevance in interpreting and understanding respondents' particular tastes, orientations and attitudes in relation to period films. Mindful of the very specific links between class fraction, class identity and educational capital on the one hand, and ‘cultural capital’, cultural preferences and formation of film tastes on the other, this chapter takes an interest in a varied range of indicators of respondents' identities — from self-reported sexual orientation to minutiae of schooling, university types, literary adaptations and heritage films, and occupational cultures.Less
This chapter analyses the demographic backgrounds of respondents of the Heritage Audience Survey and a wider range of indicators of identity, with some comparative reference to the demographics of the wider cinema audience in the 1990s (and the thinner existing evidence on the demographics of film audiences in the United Kingdom for specific period films) as established in the limited publicly available industry sources. The chapter identifies the distinguishing features of the two subsamples, highlighting those most resonant in relation to the heritage-film debate, and those of likely relevance in interpreting and understanding respondents' particular tastes, orientations and attitudes in relation to period films. Mindful of the very specific links between class fraction, class identity and educational capital on the one hand, and ‘cultural capital’, cultural preferences and formation of film tastes on the other, this chapter takes an interest in a varied range of indicators of respondents' identities — from self-reported sexual orientation to minutiae of schooling, university types, literary adaptations and heritage films, and occupational cultures.
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The critique of heritage cinema has demarcated ‘heritage films’ as institutionally and culturally distinct from the mainstream in particular ways that mark enjoyment of them as a taste, and a sphere ...
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The critique of heritage cinema has demarcated ‘heritage films’ as institutionally and culturally distinct from the mainstream in particular ways that mark enjoyment of them as a taste, and a sphere of consumption, characterised by a degree of (self-conscious) separation from commercial popular film/culture. This chapter examines the general contours of Heritage Audience Survey respondents' cinemagoing and film viewing habits — or more precisely, their film habitus, focusing on period films. It discusses respondents' frequency of cinemagoing and viewing of films in other media, the relative place of commercial and art cinema venues within their habitus — and, indeed, whether they saw films at the cinema at all (which a significant contingent of older respondents in the National Trust subsample did not).Less
The critique of heritage cinema has demarcated ‘heritage films’ as institutionally and culturally distinct from the mainstream in particular ways that mark enjoyment of them as a taste, and a sphere of consumption, characterised by a degree of (self-conscious) separation from commercial popular film/culture. This chapter examines the general contours of Heritage Audience Survey respondents' cinemagoing and film viewing habits — or more precisely, their film habitus, focusing on period films. It discusses respondents' frequency of cinemagoing and viewing of films in other media, the relative place of commercial and art cinema venues within their habitus — and, indeed, whether they saw films at the cinema at all (which a significant contingent of older respondents in the National Trust subsample did not).
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores the specifics of Heritage Audience Survey respondents' tastes in films: both in general and with reference to period films. It looks at profoundly contrasting patterns between ...
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This chapter explores the specifics of Heritage Audience Survey respondents' tastes in films: both in general and with reference to period films. It looks at profoundly contrasting patterns between the Time Out and National Trust subsamples in terms of film familiarity, adventurousness of film viewing and film tastes. Notwithstanding their ostensibly ‘uncinematic’ characteristics, did some respondents enjoy heritage films in the context of popular cinema tastes, or as part of a more informed cinephilia by others? How many films (from lists presented in the questionnaire) they recalled seeing across both period and non-period films? The majority of listed films were placed into classificatory groups — not divulged to respondents — for the purpose of analysing film tastes. The chapter considers two final indicators of patterns of ‘heritage’ film taste: the numbers of films directed by James Ivory and seen by respondents and the numbers of listed benchmark 1980s to mid-1990s film and television adaptations from Jane Austen novels they had seen.Less
This chapter explores the specifics of Heritage Audience Survey respondents' tastes in films: both in general and with reference to period films. It looks at profoundly contrasting patterns between the Time Out and National Trust subsamples in terms of film familiarity, adventurousness of film viewing and film tastes. Notwithstanding their ostensibly ‘uncinematic’ characteristics, did some respondents enjoy heritage films in the context of popular cinema tastes, or as part of a more informed cinephilia by others? How many films (from lists presented in the questionnaire) they recalled seeing across both period and non-period films? The majority of listed films were placed into classificatory groups — not divulged to respondents — for the purpose of analysing film tastes. The chapter considers two final indicators of patterns of ‘heritage’ film taste: the numbers of films directed by James Ivory and seen by respondents and the numbers of listed benchmark 1980s to mid-1990s film and television adaptations from Jane Austen novels they had seen.
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter looks at Heritage Audience Survey respondents' self-worded testimonies to explore what these — and wider survey evidence — revealed about their viewing positions, film tastes, attitudes ...
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This chapter looks at Heritage Audience Survey respondents' self-worded testimonies to explore what these — and wider survey evidence — revealed about their viewing positions, film tastes, attitudes and expectations in relation to period films (including heritage films), as well as their dispositions and orientations in relation to a variety of critical questions around ‘heritage film’. Respondents were invited to express their views in their own words in response to open questions asking what they most enjoyed, or did not enjoy, about the period films they watched. This analysis also draws upon two multiple-choice elements in the survey questionnaire: a list of twenty-eight pre-suggested ‘pleasures’ (visual pleasures and pleasures of narrative), which respondents might hypothetically find in period films, and a list of seventy-four attitude statements, expressing a range of views, opinions or positions in relation to period films, ‘quality’ literary adaptations, and the suppositions of existing discourses around these. Finally, the chapter discusses the discourse of authenticity as well as pleasures of engagement and disengagement.Less
This chapter looks at Heritage Audience Survey respondents' self-worded testimonies to explore what these — and wider survey evidence — revealed about their viewing positions, film tastes, attitudes and expectations in relation to period films (including heritage films), as well as their dispositions and orientations in relation to a variety of critical questions around ‘heritage film’. Respondents were invited to express their views in their own words in response to open questions asking what they most enjoyed, or did not enjoy, about the period films they watched. This analysis also draws upon two multiple-choice elements in the survey questionnaire: a list of twenty-eight pre-suggested ‘pleasures’ (visual pleasures and pleasures of narrative), which respondents might hypothetically find in period films, and a list of seventy-four attitude statements, expressing a range of views, opinions or positions in relation to period films, ‘quality’ literary adaptations, and the suppositions of existing discourses around these. Finally, the chapter discusses the discourse of authenticity as well as pleasures of engagement and disengagement.
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores Heritage Audience Survey respondents' conceptions of ‘quality’ in relation to the period films they watched, and their positioning in relation to the ‘literary’ pleasures ...
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This chapter explores Heritage Audience Survey respondents' conceptions of ‘quality’ in relation to the period films they watched, and their positioning in relation to the ‘literary’ pleasures offered by many period films (including, but not solely with reference to, literary adaptations), as well as attitudes and expectations in relation to adaptation itself. The function of period films as a substitute for reading classic novels or factual history, or going to the theatre, was given as a (or the) primary reason why the respondent enjoyed them. In addition to the ‘British cinema’ attitude statement, the questionnaire had pre-suggested two pleasures: ‘seeing leading British actors/actresses at their best’ and ‘pride in seeing British cinema at its best’ — which conflated the notions of ‘quality’ with ‘Britishness’. Many respondents associated American cinema with an inauthenticity not confined to period detail. National Trust subsamples' self-worded replies confirmed that at least some of them did indeed believe that recent, particularly post-1980, British period films and television dramas were superior to those of earlier decades, centrally due to their scrupulous ‘authenticity’.Less
This chapter explores Heritage Audience Survey respondents' conceptions of ‘quality’ in relation to the period films they watched, and their positioning in relation to the ‘literary’ pleasures offered by many period films (including, but not solely with reference to, literary adaptations), as well as attitudes and expectations in relation to adaptation itself. The function of period films as a substitute for reading classic novels or factual history, or going to the theatre, was given as a (or the) primary reason why the respondent enjoyed them. In addition to the ‘British cinema’ attitude statement, the questionnaire had pre-suggested two pleasures: ‘seeing leading British actors/actresses at their best’ and ‘pride in seeing British cinema at its best’ — which conflated the notions of ‘quality’ with ‘Britishness’. Many respondents associated American cinema with an inauthenticity not confined to period detail. National Trust subsamples' self-worded replies confirmed that at least some of them did indeed believe that recent, particularly post-1980, British period films and television dramas were superior to those of earlier decades, centrally due to their scrupulous ‘authenticity’.
Claire Monk
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638246
- eISBN:
- 9780748651238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter draws together the most significant points to emerge from an analysis of the ‘heritage film audiences’ — as represented by the two groups who participated in the Heritage Audience Survey ...
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This chapter draws together the most significant points to emerge from an analysis of the ‘heritage film audiences’ — as represented by the two groups who participated in the Heritage Audience Survey — and considers their implications for the debate around heritage cinema. These implications are centred around questions of the coherence and distinct(ive)ness of the ‘heritage film audience’ (or audiences); the related question of how far respondents exhibited a self-identity as period-film viewers; the question of respondents' levels of consciousness or self-consciousness in relation to the heritage-film debate itself; and the question of audience autonomy (that is, how far respondents were able to produce their own distinct audience discourses around period films). This book turns from a sociological focus on the composition and identities of period film audiences, via questions of cultural (pre-)disposition, film consumption practices, and film tastes, to a more interpretative reading of the ‘texts’ presented by ‘respondents’ views and attitudes and, ultimately, their cultural-political positioning in relation to period films.Less
This chapter draws together the most significant points to emerge from an analysis of the ‘heritage film audiences’ — as represented by the two groups who participated in the Heritage Audience Survey — and considers their implications for the debate around heritage cinema. These implications are centred around questions of the coherence and distinct(ive)ness of the ‘heritage film audience’ (or audiences); the related question of how far respondents exhibited a self-identity as period-film viewers; the question of respondents' levels of consciousness or self-consciousness in relation to the heritage-film debate itself; and the question of audience autonomy (that is, how far respondents were able to produce their own distinct audience discourses around period films). This book turns from a sociological focus on the composition and identities of period film audiences, via questions of cultural (pre-)disposition, film consumption practices, and film tastes, to a more interpretative reading of the ‘texts’ presented by ‘respondents’ views and attitudes and, ultimately, their cultural-political positioning in relation to period films.
Bernadette Meyler
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501739330
- eISBN:
- 9781501739392
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501739330.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The introduction draws on theories of genre and existing work in early modern law and literature to define the attributes and explain the significance of theaters of pardoning. Demonstrating the ...
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The introduction draws on theories of genre and existing work in early modern law and literature to define the attributes and explain the significance of theaters of pardoning. Demonstrating the surprisingly significant number of seventeenth-century English plays that end with pardons, the introduction identifies these forms of tragicomedy as theaters of pardoning. It also emphasizes how the historical interrelations among the institutions and actors of law, drama, and politics in seventeenth-century England brought conceptions of pardoning from theater to law court to palace and back.Less
The introduction draws on theories of genre and existing work in early modern law and literature to define the attributes and explain the significance of theaters of pardoning. Demonstrating the surprisingly significant number of seventeenth-century English plays that end with pardons, the introduction identifies these forms of tragicomedy as theaters of pardoning. It also emphasizes how the historical interrelations among the institutions and actors of law, drama, and politics in seventeenth-century England brought conceptions of pardoning from theater to law court to palace and back.
