1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910974321203321

Autore

Hansen Miriam <1949-2011.>

Titolo

Babel and Babylon : spectatorship in American silent film / / Miriam Hansen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, MA, : Harvard University Press, 1991

ISBN

9780674264298

0674264290

9780674038295

0674038290

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 377 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

791.430973

Soggetti

Silent films - United States - History and criticism

Motion picture audiences - United States - History

Feminism and motion pictures

United States Social life and customs 1865-1918

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: Cinema Spectatorship and Public Life PART I: Rebuilding the Tower of Babel: The Emergence of Spectatorship 1. A Cinema in Search of a Spectator: Film-Viewer Relations before Hollywood 2. Early Audiences: Myths and Models 3. Chameleon and Catalyst: The Cinema as an Alternative Public Sphere PART II: Babel in Babylon: D. W. Grffith's Intolerance (1916) 4. Reception, Textual System, and Self-Definition 5. "A Radiant Crazy-Quilt": Patterns of Narration and Address 6. Genesis, Causes, Concepts of History 7. Film History, Archaeology Universal Language 8. Hieroglyphics, Figurations of Writing 9. Riddles of Maternity 10. Crisis of Femininity, Fantasies of Rescue PART III: The Return of Babylon: Rudolph Valentino and Female Spectatorship (1921-1926) 11. Male Star, Female Fans 12. Patterns of Vision, Scenarios of Identification Notes Illustration Credits Index

Sommario/riassunto

Offers a perspective on American film by tying the growth of spectatorship to the historical transformation of the public sphere. Focusing on silent films, this text examines how the spectator concept evolved, integrating ethnically, socially and sexually differentiated



audiences.