Psycho-killer: Shifting spectator address from Psycho to Bates Motel

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Unique Mode ◽  
Slasher Film ◽  
Opening Up

Leveraging Carol Clover’s influential Men, Women, and Chain Saws, this article attempts to situate the A&E television series Bates Motel as a progressive prequel to Psycho. Through a close reading of the series’ formal and narrative components, vital distinctions are clarified between Psycho and Bates Motel, arguing that the latter achieves a unique mode of spectatorial address. This unique address is accomplished via three devices: a shift in genre away from the horror/slasher film to re-situate the backstory of Norman Bates within the melodrama – a genre traditionally geared to a female spectator; by playing Norman as an active investigative protagonist rather than the prototypical psycho-killer devoid of psychological complexity; and by opening up the narrative to dual protagonists via the inclusion of Norma Bates. Taken together, Bates Motel emerges as an adaptation of the iconic Hitchcock film whose very success is dependent on intentionally altering its mode of spectatorial address.

scholarly journals Family in colour: integrating colour into Sally Mann’s Family Pictures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoë Antonia Lepiano
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Exhibition History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Selection Of

Over her forty-year career photographer Sally Mann (b. 1951) has become synonymous with black-and white large format photography and nineteenth-century processes, used to depict her family, their environment, and the landscapes of the southern U.S.A. Yet Mann has worked with a variety of processes including colour. This thesis focuses on the printed Cibachromes and unprinted colour transparencies, taken between 1990 and 1994, that make up Mann’s Family Color collection, part of Family Pictures series, the well-known black-and-white photographs of her three children. It outlines work done in situ in the artist’s archive, the consequent discovery of a number of unprinted colour transparencies, and their integration into Mann’s studio through digitization and organization of the collection. An exploration of the production and exhibition history of Family Color is followed by a close-reading of a selection of printed colour photographs from the series, as well as the newly discovered, unprinted images. These comparisons enable the series to be situated within Mann’s larger practice opening up areas for future research.

scholarly journals La donna è mobile : Mujeres errantes en la ficción turística de Chile y Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Lie
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Travel Writing ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Travel Literature ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
American Women ◽  
New Energy ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Creative Production

This article offers an exploration of the creative production of women writers and filmmakers who engage with tourism as a setting for fictional imaginaries. Centering on recent fiction from Chile and Argentina, it examines how tourism has infused new energy into the withering genre of travel writing, opening up a space for the expression of female subjectivities in a field previously dominated by men. Through close reading of works by Uhart, Katz, Scherson and Jeftanovic, it explores how these Latin American women challenge Michel Onfray’s definition of travel literature.

scholarly journals Tarzan, um negro: para uma crítica da economia política do nome de “África”

Afro-Ásia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo R. S. Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Comic Strips ◽  
Global Circulation ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Black Man ◽  
Opening Up

<p>Desde 1912, inúmeros textos – romances, programas de rádio, histórias em quadrinhos, seriados de televisão, filmes – produziram e articularam representações da África em narrativas envolvendo Tarzan, criado pelo estadunidense Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950). Tomando o nome de “África” como referência, os textos que orbitam e habitam o nome de “Tarzan” pertencem a uma genealogia ocidental e a uma história transcultural. Após abordar a economia da marca registrada “Tarzan ®” em sua circulação global, uma descrição breve e esquemática da filmografia de Tarzan me permite interrogar o que chamo de nomenclausura ocidentalista da “África”. Finalmente, por meio de uma leitura atenta de Moi, un noir (1959), de Jean Rouch, como um prisma através do qual a circulação global de Tarzan pode ser interpretada e reinventada, sugiro possibilidades de transbordamento imaginativo, abrindo o espaçamento transcultural da escritura da “África” como economia política do nome de “África”.</p><p> </p><p>Tarzan, a Black Man: Toward a Critique of the Polit Economy of the Name of “Africa”</p><p>Since 1912, countless texts – novels, radio shows, comic strips, television serials, films – have produced and articulated representations of Africa in narratives featuring Tarzan, a character created by the US author Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950). Taking the name of “Africa” as a reference, the texts which surround and inhabit the name of “Tarzan” belong both to a Western genealogy and to a cross-cultural history. After examining the economy of the global circulation of the “Tarzan” trademark, I give a brief and schematic description of Tarzan’s filmography, which allows me to interrogate what I call the occidentalist name-in-closure of “Africa”. At last, by means of a close reading of Jean Rouch’s Moi, un noir (1959) as a prism through which Tarzan’s global circulation can be interpreted and reinvented, I suggest possibilities of imaginative overflow, opening up the cross-cultural spacing of the writing of “Africa” as political economy of the name of “Africa”.</p><p>Cinema | Africa | Tarzan | Racism</p>

scholarly journals Bruce Lee as gladiator: Celebrity, vernacular stoicism and cinema

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-361
Author(s):  
Lindsay Steenberg
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Body Type ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
The Third ◽  
Bruce Lee ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Opening Up

This article situates Bruce Lee’s films and star persona in the context of wider patterns in global genre cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. I argue for a connection between the Western reception of Lee’s films and those of the mid-century Italian sword and sandal films, beginning with the Colosseum fight between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris that concludes Way of the Dragon (1972). From the dojo fights of Fist of Fury (1972), through the tournament structure in Enter the Dragon (1973), to his statistically led re-animation in the EA Sports UFC 3 (2018) videogame, Bruce Lee can be usefully considered as a gladiator. Bruce Lee, as fighter, performer and star persona, contributes to the enduring gladiatorial archetype that is an embedded feature in the Western visual imaginary. Furthermore, I argue that the gladiator archetype itself shifted because of Lee’s onscreen roles and the discourse that surrounds his star persona. In order to map these shifts and patterns of confluence, I chart three main points of impact that Lee has had on the gladiatorial archetype using his Western-facing roles on film and television, namely the television series Longstreet (1971–1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973). First, I consider the inclusion of martial arts and, second, the opening up of the field of representation to different models of masculinity, including a leaner body type and a non-White – in this case, ethnically Chinese – gladiator. The third point is the emphasis on a popular, or vernacular, stoicism. Ultimately, I elucidate the relationship between the gladiator, Bruce Lee, and philosophy, arguing that Lee embodies a vernacular stoicism that has become one of the defining features of the post-millennial gladiator and notions of heroic masculinity in popular culture more widely.

Opening up the pit: Negotiating a punk ethos with PUP

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Bimm ◽  
Andi Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Cultural Nationalism ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Arts Funding ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Canadian Music ◽  
Opening Up

What does it mean to be punk within the Canadian music industry? This article offers a close reading of the band PUP’s politics, grassroots partnerships and personal interviews to argue that they not only skew punk in genre terms, but also embody a punk ethos. Furthermore, this article will confront the ambivalent politics of punk as it becomes entangled with cultural nationalism and national identity-building through institutional arts funding and awards. If punk is about resisting the establishment, how might we reconcile PUP’s reputation as a definitively ‘Canadian’ band with their outspokenness around issues ranging from anti-Black racism to police violence to ongoing colonialism? In what ways might PUP’s leftist politics be absorbed into Canada’s national identity through their receipt of institutional recognition, funding and awards? To make sense of these entanglements, we draw on Tavia Nyong’o’s punk or punk’d theory, which responds to the apparent reification of queer theory and calls on scholars to cultivate a punk spirit. Following Nyong’o and other punk scholars, we ask: is PUP punk’ing the Canadian music machine?

scholarly journals Lenin in Allah’s court: Iqbal’s critique of Western capitalism and the opening up of the postcolonial imagination in critical management studies

Organization ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farzad Rafi Khan ◽  
Basit Bilal Koshul
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Critical Management ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Critical Management Studies ◽  
Critical Reflections

One manifestation of the Eurocentrism present in postcolonial critical management studies is its failure to engage with Muslim critiques of Western capitalism on their own terms. In this article we seek to address this deficiency by introducing the thought of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938)— one of the most influential thinkers in the postcolonial Muslim world. We do a close reading of three of Iqbal’s poems that are considered among his most representative and poignant critical reflections on Western capitalism and its imperialistic presence in the Global South. This close reading generates the major contribution of this article which is an alternative critical narrative on Western capitalism that is characterized by theocentrism and embodied love. We argue that this is a distinct way of critiquing Western capitalism which allows us to better recognize the provincial (i.e. Western) character of postcolonial critical management studies.

scholarly journals Family in colour: integrating colour into Sally Mann’s Family Pictures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoë Antonia Lepiano
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Exhibition History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Selection Of

Over her forty-year career photographer Sally Mann (b. 1951) has become synonymous with black-and white large format photography and nineteenth-century processes, used to depict her family, their environment, and the landscapes of the southern U.S.A. Yet Mann has worked with a variety of processes including colour. This thesis focuses on the printed Cibachromes and unprinted colour transparencies, taken between 1990 and 1994, that make up Mann’s Family Color collection, part of Family Pictures series, the well-known black-and-white photographs of her three children. It outlines work done in situ in the artist’s archive, the consequent discovery of a number of unprinted colour transparencies, and their integration into Mann’s studio through digitization and organization of the collection. An exploration of the production and exhibition history of Family Color is followed by a close-reading of a selection of printed colour photographs from the series, as well as the newly discovered, unprinted images. These comparisons enable the series to be situated within Mann’s larger practice opening up areas for future research.

Painting

2020 ◽  
pp. 301-347
Author(s):  
Andrew Kahn
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Russian Art ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
Art Scene ◽  
Opening Up

This chapter observes that references to the eye and parts of the eye (eyelashes, iris, pupil, sclera, retina, and socket) are pervasive in Mandelstam’s prose and poetry. These references intensify around 1931, at a time when his poems establish a visual dialectic between representations of art (cinema, painting, objects) and also make use of images from Soviet life, adding what W.J.T. Mitchell calls ‘iconotexts’ to the emblems or ideograms seen in the poems of the early 1920s. A close reading of a famous passage from the travel piece Journey to Armenia unravels from its references to French painters and theorists the background behind Mandelstam’s terminology and his preoccupation with the physiological sensitivity of the eye. The Russian art scene was strongly influenced by French neo-Impressionist painting, in both theory and practice, and Mandelstam’s references condense a cultural moment of great prominence and influence. The chapter moves on to poems that aim to transpose onto a verbal canvas some of the lessons of these schools of painting, opening up new worlds governed by rules of art rather than rules of ideology at a time when the Soviet state was imposing canons of representation.

Televisual diplomacy: I am the Ambassador and Danish nation branding at home and abroad

Politics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 430-447
Author(s):  
Robert A Saunders ◽  
Joel Vessels
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Culture Form ◽  
The Us ◽  
At Home

In a time when the current US president came to office via a career in reality television, it seems unnecessary to argue that popular culture and International Relations intersect in meaningful and dramatic ways. Operating from this premise, mass-mediating the act of diplomacy via a television series presents a fecund object of analysis that questions many of the myths surrounding what we call the ‘diplomatic community’. Consequently, this article is interested in the geopolitical interposition of Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) via the popular culture form of reality television. We achieve this through a close reading of the DR series I am the Ambassador/Jeg er ambassadøren fra Amerika (2014–2016), ‘starring’ the real US ambassador to Denmark. We situate Ambassador within the evolving space of ‘new diplomacy’ through an evaluation of how it imagines, popularises, and expands ‘everyday’ sites of diplomacy via mass-mediation. However, as we argue, the series – when viewed holistically – says more about the Danish state and its people than it does about the role of the US ambassador, thus functioning as a tool of nation branding as much at home as abroad.

scholarly journals The Past is With Us and Yet to Come: A Hauntological Analysis of Tsutomu Mizushima’s Anime Series, 'Another'

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 65-79
Author(s):  
Luke Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Unexpected Death ◽  
Intergenerational Effects ◽  
War Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come

Japanese director Tsutomu Mizushima’s 2012 animated television series, Another, presents a narrative whereby one social group’s refusal to accept an unexpected death triggers an intergenerational curse. This paper takes a close reading of Mizushima’s anime, showing how its narrative contends that the present—and by default the future—is not self-sufficient but instead relies upon understandings of the past. The analysis uses the lens of Jacques Derrida’s theory of hauntology, which opens up a space for discursive accounts of the presence of the past in the present and its influence on the future, and therefore serves as a powerful tool for interrogating questions of war memory. I demonstrate that Another exemplifies the use of anime as a critical medium, showing how it uses allegory to explore the motivations and consequences of Japan’s lack of a dominant historical narrative about the war and the resulting intergenerational effects of this historical consciousness problem. As Japan continues to debate remilitarisation and the fate of Article 9 in its constitution, it seems particularly apt to revisit Mizushima’s Another, which illustrates the dangers of ignoring the spectre of history.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document