This is the first book to examine the various uses of the Arthurian legend in Hollywood film, covering films from the 1920s to the present. The authors use five representational categories: intertextual collage (or cult film); melodrama, which focuses on the love triangle; conservative propaganda, pervasive during the Cold War; the Hollywood epic; and the postmodern quest, which commonly employs the grail portion of the legend. Arguing that filmmakers rely on the audience's rudimentary familiarity with the legend, the authors show that only certain features of the legend are activated at any particular time. This fascinating study shows us how the legend has been adapted and how through the popular medium of Hollywood films, the Arthurian legend has survived and flourished.
Unlike such romanticized renegades as Robin Hood and Jesse James, there is another kind of outlaw hero, one who lives between the law and his own personal code. In times of crisis, when the law proves inadequate, the liminal outlaw negotiates between the social imperatives of the community and his innate sense of right and wrong. While society requires his services, he necessarily remains apart from it in self-preservation. The modern outlaw hero of film and television is rooted in the knight errant, whose violent exploits are tempered by his solitude and devotion to a higher ideal. In Hollywood classics such as Casablanca (1942) and Shane (1953), and in early series like The Lone Ranger (1949-1957) and Have Gun--Will Travel (1957-1963), the outlaw hero reconciles for audiences the conflicting impulses of individual freedom versus serving a larger cause. Urban westerns like the Dirty Harry and Death Wish franchises, as well as iconic action figures like Rambo and Batman, testify to his enduring popularity. This book examines the liminal hero's origins in medieval romance, his survival in the mythology of the Hollywood western and his incarnations in the urban western and modern action film.
This is the first book to examine the various uses of the Arthurian legend in Hollywood film, covering films from the 1920s to the present. The authors use five representational categories: intertextual collage (or cult film); melodrama, which focuses on the love triangle; conservative propaganda, pervasive during the Cold War; the Hollywood epic; and the postmodern quest, which commonly employs the grail portion of the legend. Arguing that filmmakers rely on the audience's rudimentary familiarity with the legend, the authors show that only certain features of the legend are activated at any particular time. This fascinating study shows us how the legend has been adapted and how through the popular medium of Hollywood films, the Arthurian legend has survived and flourished.
In 1916, when Rebecca West was not yet twenty-five years old, George Bernard Shaw wrote: 'Rebecca can handle a pen as brilliantly as ever I could and much more savagely.' These early writings, collected ehre for the first time, established Rebecca West's reputation as a brilliant journalist and a dedicated yet undogmatic feminist and socialist. From the age of nineteen, writing articles for The Freewoman, and later the Clarion, she displayed her characteristic fierce intelligence, her passion and her biting wit in articles on women's suffrage, imperialism, the Labour Party, and trade unionism as well as literature, religion, domesticity, men and crime. Whether reviewing the latest novel by H.G. Wells ('the sex obsession that lay clotted on Ann Veronica... like cold white sauce'), describing police brutality against suffragettes ('An Orgy of Disorder and Cruelty'), or arguing for better conditions for working women ('Women ought to understand that in submitting themselves to this swindle of underpayment, they are not only insulting themselves, but doing a deadly injury to the community'), she demonstrated again and again a characteristic fearlessness and a formidable grasp of events. Including a short story, 'Indissoluble Matrimony', which appeared in the historic first issue of Blast, and a biographical essay of great psychological penetration on the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, this exhilerating collection introduces the early work of one of the most distinguished writers of our time and provides a portrait of a fascinating and turbulent period of British political and literary history.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.