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This is a full-length study of Jeanette Winterson's work as a whole, containing in-depth analyses of her eight novels and cross-references to her minor fictional and non-fictional works. It establishes the formal, thematic and ideological characteristics of the novels, and situates the writer within the general panorama of contemporary British fiction. Earlier critics usually approached Winterson exclusively either as a key lesbian novelist, or as a heavily experimental and ‘arty’ writer, whose works are unnecessarily difficult and meaningless. By contrast, this book provides a comprehensive, ‘vertical’ analysis of the novels. It combines the study of formal issues – such as narrative structure, point of view, perspective and the handling of narrative and story time – with the thematic analysis of character types, recurrent topoi, intertextual and generic allusions, etc., focused from various analytical perspectives: narratology, lesbian and feminist theory (especially Cixous and Kristeva), Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, Jungian archetypal criticism, Tarot, Hermetic and Kabalistic symbolism, myth criticism, Newtonian and Post-Newtonian Physics, etc. Novels that read superficially, or appear simple and realistic, are revealed as complex linguistic artifacts with a convoluted structure and clogged with intertextual echoes of earlier writers and works. The conclusions show the inseparability of form and meaning (for example, the fact that all the novels have a spiralling structure reflects the depiction of self as fluid and of the world as a multiverse) and place Winterson within the trend of postmodernist British writers with a visionary outlook on art, such as Maureen Duffy, Marina Warner or Peter Ackroyd.
This article sets out to reinvigorate national cinema studies in an Irish context through a quantitative analysis of films financed by the Irish Film Board between 1993 and 2013. In constructing and coding a database of titles produced with the aid of state finance during this period, the authors argue for a methodology that broadens the inductive approaches of textual analysis that have dominated discussions of Irish cinema to date. By establishing recurring genres, narrative patterns, themes and character types present in IFB-funded films during this period, this article demonstrates how the professional objectives of IFB personnel have shaped institutional funding outcomes.
. Furthermore, the films extend the dramatic conception of the earlier work through a continued emphasis on the depiction of cultures of marginality and, more importantly, through a system of self-referentiality, which posits the earlier films as intertext. It becomes clear very early in the trilogy that Blier is deliberately reworking character types and dramatic configurations, through a process of ‘quotation’ of previous characters and
suggested the possible emergence of a new French star. One of the issues this chapter will address is, precisely, whether or not we can think of Kassovitz in terms of stardom, that ‘elusive quality’, defined by Vincendeau (2005: 14), as the: ‘amalgam of character type, performance style, looks and “aura” that allows a few actors, in Richard Dyer’s words, to “crystalise and authenticate” social values and
singular, pre-existing ‘persona’ is undercut by the multiplicity of his types of presence within these films (contrary to Dyer, 1998 [1979] : 126). In these dual roles, Khan not only responds to the needs of multiple genres, he also responds to generic codes with a perhaps surprising degree of elasticity for a star actor who is rarely described as a skilled performer. The range of character types performed by Khan in his post-millennial films provides
which censors encountered and shaped the character types outlined in previous chapters. Through a close examination of the objections of Home Office and BBFC officials to certain themes and characters, as well as internal discussions within each organisation, and finally a survey of novels banned by MUP_Grandy_Heroes.indd 179 20/02/2014 11:23 180 Heroes and happy endings the Home Office, we can see a tacit endorsement of the character types that dominated popular film and fiction. I argue that the censorship bodies of the Home Office and the BBFC, to varying
the title Pirouettes ) and Les mémoires de Jacques Panier (later revised and republished as Le mariage de Peluque ). Well written though rather formulaic in their melodrama, these early works exemplify the twin creative strategies that would subsequently define Pagnol’s dramatic writing: embellishing pre-existing stories and character types from various narrative traditions with references to his own experiences and
The chapter examines the teen film, one of the most significant genres dominating the global film industry since the 1990s. After a brief overview of the socio-economic background of the genre’s recent popularity, the chapter focuses on the common features of the group, from character types, typical settings, the role of the soundtrack and the characteristically decontextualised use of textual fragments, through a tendency to present heterosexual romance as ideal, to the genre’s reflection on authority figures, both in the school environment and within the family. Beside the best-known examples of the genre, which all employ the romantic comedy’s narrative structure, the chapter discusses one tragic teen drama and two independent queer productions as well, highlighting their darker social messages, which set them apart from the more light-hearted iterations of the formula. The chapter also argues against the common criticism that teen films are dumbed-down versions of literary masterpieces, pointing out the ways in which these adaptations are consciously shaped to cater for the interests of their target audience.
romance. In Book X (1552), 1 dedicated to the sister of Henri II, Marguerite de France, Gohory remarks on the mystical allegories contained in fiction. In Book XIII (1571), dedicated to the Countesse de Retz, and supported by all the members of the Pléiade, he echoes Amyot in noting that virtue is rewarded and vice condemned, and that a wide range of character types and emotions
foreground the constructed and mediated nature of a film or programme. Furthermore, the activity of performance becomes more crucial and noticeable, as generic modes are deliberately juxtaposed or melded and as the performance of generic character types becomes increasingly palpable. For films, this is true of both mainstream and independent productions. For example, a self-reflexive mode has almost become the norm in post