scholarly journals The American Film Musical and the Place(less)ness of Entertainment: Cabaret’s “International Sensation” and American Identity in Crisis

Humanities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Florian Zitzelsberger
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Structure ◽  
American Identity ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cultural Hybridity ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
Cultural Performance ◽  
American Film ◽  
Recent Application ◽  
Mise En Abyme ◽  
National Boundaries

This article looks at cosmopolitanism in the American film musical through the lens of the genre’s self-reflexivity. By incorporating musical numbers into its narrative, the musical mirrors the entertainment industry mise en abyme, and establishes an intrinsic link to America through the act of (cultural) performance. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope and its recent application to the genre of the musical, I read the implicitly spatial backstage/stage duality overlaying narrative and number—the musical’s dual registers—as a means of challenging representations of Americanness, nationhood, and belonging. The incongruities arising from the segmentation into dual registers, realms complying with their own rules, destabilize the narrative structure of the musical and, as such, put the semantic differences between narrative and number into critical focus. A close reading of the 1972 film Cabaret, whose narrative is set in 1931 Berlin, shows that the cosmopolitanism of the American film musical lies in this juxtaposition of non-American and American (at least connotatively) spaces and the self-reflexive interweaving of their associated registers and narrative levels. If metalepsis designates the transgression of (onto)logically separate syntactic units of film, then it also symbolically constitutes a transgression and rejection of national boundaries. In the case of Cabaret, such incongruities and transgressions eventually undermine the notion of a stable American identity, exposing the American Dream as an illusion produced by the inherent heteronormativity of the entertainment industry. The film advocates a cosmopolitan model of cultural hybridity and the plurality of identities by shedding light on the faultlines of nationalist essentialism.

NIETSCHE'S CONTRIBUTION TO A PHENOMENOLOGY OF INTOXICATION

2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-43
Author(s):  
Sonia Sikka
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Self ◽  
Phenomenological Description ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
Authorial Voice

AbstractThrough a reading of Nietzsche's texts, primarily of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, this article develops a phenomenological description of the variety of intoxication exemplified in conditions of drunkenness, or in states of emotional excess. It treats Thus Spoke Zarathustra as a literary expression of such intoxication, arguing against attempts to find a coherent narrative structure and clear authorial voice behind this text's apparent disorder. Having isolated the intoxicated characteristics of Thus Spoke Zarathustra - its hyperbolic rhetoric and emotions, its lack of balance, its injustice, its shifting and conflicting moods, and its self-contradictions - I then offer an interpretation of the work, and by extension of intoxication itself, in terms of Nietzsche's model of the self as a dynamic multiplicity of forces. At the same time, I argue for a multiple and dynamic conception of personality in general.

Material Connections: German Schools, Things, and Soft Power in Argentina and Chile from the 1880s through the Interwar Period

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-549
Author(s):  
H. Glenn Penny
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Cultural Hybridity ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Great Insight ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractFrom the late nineteenth century through the interwar period, the production and consumption of German things played critical roles in delineating and connecting a wide variety of German places in Latin America. Such places became ubiquitous in Chile and Argentina. They flourished because there was ample room in the German imagination for the multiplicity of German places and the cultural hybridity that accompanied them to extend beyond Imperial Germany's national boundaries and colonial possessions. They also flourished because host societies found virtue in having those German places in their states. This essay uses German schools in Argentina and Chile as a window into the emergence of such German places and the soft power that accompanied them. Scholars often overlook that power when they focus on colonial questions or formal and informal imperialism in Latin America. More than any other institution, German schools became sites where the production and consumption of German things were concentrated and multilayered, and where the consistencies and great varieties of Germanness that arrived and evolved in Latin America gained their clearest articulation. Because those schools were both centers of communities and nodes in a global pedagogical network that thrived during the interwar period, they provide us with great insight into a nexus of motivations that created German places in Latin America. Life around these schools also underscores the importance of studying immigrants and their things together.

Hollywood Studios

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lev
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Motion Picture ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
The United States ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
American Film ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
American Film Industry

“Studio” and “Hollywood” are interestingly complex terms. “Studio” originally meant a room with abundant natural light. The first motion picture studios were large, glass-walled rooms designed for filming with natural light. The term “studio” expanded to refer to a motion picture production facility, and then it expanded again to mean a company that made motion pictures. By the late 1920s the best-known American studios were large, vertically integrated corporations that produced, distributed, and exhibited films: Paramount, MGM, Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO. Columbia, Universal, and United Artists were also considered major studios, though they owned few or no theaters, and there were smaller B-movie companies such as Monogram and Republic. “Hollywood” refers to a neighborhood north and west of downtown Los Angeles where a number of movie companies settled when they left the East Coast for California in the 1910s. This term has expanded in meaning as well; it now means all film production in the Los Angeles area, and even by synecdoche the entire American film industry. From about 1920 to 1950, film was the dominant entertainment industry in the United States, and the eight major studios firmly controlled this medium. The studios’ top executives, sometimes called “moguls” to emphasize their power, supervised thousands of employees and decided what films were made, how they were made, and how they were released. This is often called the “studio period,” or the “classic period,” or the “golden age of Hollywood.” After 1950 there was a gradual change to independent production as directors, producers, stars, and agents took over the creative aspects of filmmaking, with the studios mainly responsible for financing and distribution. Eventually, the Hollywood film studios expanded to other fields such as television, cable, music, home video, theme parks, and Internet, and they were bought or merged with larger corporations. The giant media conglomerates of the early 21st century (Disney, Time Warner, News Corp., Viacom, Comcast, and Sony) resemble the studios of old in their domination of the entertainment industry. This article will concentrate on the studio period, especially the economic and institutional histories of the eight major studios. However, since almost all of these companies still exist, and they are still called studios, some entries will discuss what happened to the American film industry and to the individual companies since the 1950s.

Celluloid love songs: musical modus operandi and the dramatic aesthetics of romantic Hindi film

Popular Music ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
NATALIE SARRAZIN
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
American Film ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Love Song ◽  
Hindi Cinema ◽  
Important Notion ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Music And Emotion

AbstractIn Hindi cinema, love songs comprise the vast majority in an industry in which almost every film contains song and dance numbers. Often incorrectly characterised as narrative interruptions, these celluloid creations contain indigenous aesthetics and self-identifying cultural values, and employ contemporary cinematic techniques which impact film song content and context. How do these cinematic techniques intensify the viewing experience and allow traditional aesthetic ideals to coexist with contemporary codes relevant to a burgeoning Indian middle class and diaspora?Beginning with an examination of traditional sources and contemporary values regarding music and emotion, I address the particularly important notion of displaying heart, often the centrepiece of thematic and dramatic tension as well as the love song soundtrack. As the primary emotional genre, I analyse the use of heart in romantic films and suggest a general typology of romantic film songs and their aesthetics, including commonly used musical motifs and codes.Finally, I compare musical, cinematic and narrative components of the Indian romantic genre with those aspects of the American film musical, particularly in relation to cultural values and ideological differences. The iconic use of a couple-centric narrative is examined in relation to Indian displays of emotion, and love song duets are contextualised through description of several pervasive cinematic techniques used to heighten the emotional impact of songs on the audience. I conclude with a focus on the relationship between the song sequence and the narrative structure, particularly how this serves to intensify the narrative flow rather than interrupt it.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Cinotto
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
American Identity ◽  
The Self ◽  
Food Culture ◽  
World War ◽  
Italian American ◽  
Italian Immigrants

This epilogue examines how the distinctiveness of Italian food has been shaped by continuous transformations and adaptations to a changing Italian America and American culture since World War II. From domestic kitchens to luxurious restaurants, Italian immigrants framed a food culture that created a nation and shaped their self-representation as a group. However, Italian American food culture underwent various changes. The meanings of Italian American food were reworked in the neoliberal landscape of deindustrialization, globalization, and a postmodern culture in which “the self” was created through consumption and where cultural difference became just another commodity. A new group of middle-class Italian immigrants to New York City started to reshape Italian food in America by detaching it from its immigrant origins and relocating it within the “authentic” traditions of Italian regional cuisine. Despite all these changes, and even as the ground for Italian American identity has shifted, Italian American food continues to convey a lifestyle, a taste, and a history.

Negotiating Paternalism and the Enterprising Self in Taiwanese Talent Shows

2013 ◽  
Vol 147 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miaoju Jian
Keyword(s):  
Reality Tv ◽  
The Self ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
Patriarchal Culture ◽  
Enterprising Self

Talent shows have rocketed to popularity in Taiwan in recent years, as demonstrated in the high rating programs, One Million Star (超級星光大道) and Super Idol (超級偶像). This article focuses on the Taiwan talent show phenomenon as an exemplar of today's contradictory and exploitable reality TV ‘celebrity economy’. Through the oft-repeated assertion of ‘yes, teacher’ (謝謝老師), Taiwan's talent shows manage to combine a globalising self-enterprising ethos of neo-liberal labour conditions with a Confucian-patriarchal culture. Within this context, powerful judges become mentors, with obedient contestants positioned as their apprentices. This article scrutinises the interdependence between this power-laden relationship in the talent shows and the self-enterprising practices of Taiwan's entertainment industry. It argues that, rather than democratising the TV empire, these shows have, paradoxically, contributed to the revival and consolidation of the previously presumed to be outmoded figure of the ‘star authority’.

scholarly journals Maximalist Autofiction, Surrealism and Late Socialism in Mircea Cărtărescu’s Solenoid

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. RLS66-RLS87
Author(s):  
Doris Mironescu ◽  
Andreea Mironescu
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Self ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Socialism ◽  
East West

This article studies the fictionalization of late Eastern-European socialism in contemporary Romania, namely the literary projection of the 1980s in Mircea Cărtărescu’s autofictional novel Solenoid (2015). The novel is an ample, paranoid, metaphysical, and counterfactual autobiography that uses a late-communist backdrop to create a metaphorically skewed representation of the self and the world. In order to describe this narrative structure as an emergent subgenre of the postmodern maximalist novel, we coined the term ‘maximalist autofiction.’ We then discussed Cărtărescu’s option for maximalist autofiction and the effects this literary choice has had on his representation of Romanian late socialism. This option is influenced by the author’s biography, as well as by his own relationship with the memory burden of socialism in today’s post-Cold War world. Cărtărescu uses hyperbole, metaphysical parody, and a maximalist surrealist imagination to propel the discussion of socialism and cultural peripherality beyond the dated parameters of the East/West dichotomies.

scholarly journals SPIRITUALITAS DALAM HEKSALOGI NOVEL SUPERNOVA KARYA DEE

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Luthfita Nur Rosyidah
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Self ◽  
Analysis Phase ◽  
Serial Novel ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Vladimir Propp

ABSTRAKPembahasan penelitian ini akan difokuskan pada tindakan plastisitas spiritualitas dalam serial novel Supernova karya Dee dengan judul Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh; Akar; Petir; Partikel; Gelombang; dan Intelegensi Embun Pagi. Penelitian ini memanfaatkan teori struktur naratif Vladimir Propp, yang terdiri dari dua tahap analisis. Pertama, analisis mengenai identifikasi motif spiritualitas dalam enam novel serial Supernova secara tekstual. Kedua, hasil identifikasi tersebut menunjukkan adanya unsur yang berulang terkait dengan motif spiritualitas yang disebut sebagai fungsi. Fungsi-fungsi tersebut kemudian dirumuskan sesuai dengan urutan kemunculannya dalam setiap novel. Melalui kedua tahap analisis tersebut dapat diperoleh makna dari adanya motif spiritualitas dalam keenam novel serial Supernova. Berdasarkan tahap analisis, ditemukan konsistensi motif spiritulitas dalam keenam novel merupakan sebuah proses pencarian dalam suatu kehidupan, serta merupakan usaha pemenuhan kekosongan diri untuk menemukan makna kehidupan. Plastisitas spiritualitas dalam keenam novel lebih menitikberatkan pada posisi sains sebagai unsur pembangun kesadaran setiap individu. Kata-kata kunci: Propp, fungsi, spiritualitas, plastisitas ABSTRACTThe research will be focused on the act of spirituality plasticity in Dee's Supernova novel series titled Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh; Akar; Petir; Partikel; Gelombang; dan Intelegensi Embun Pagi. This research utilizes the theory of narrative structure Vladimir Propp, which consists of two stages of analysis. First, an analysis of the identification of spirituality motif in six Supernova novel series. Second, the results of the identification indicate a recurring element related to the spirituality motif called function. These functions are then formulated according to the order in which they appear in each novel. Through these two stages of analysis can be obtained the meaning of the existence of a spirituality motif in the six serial Supernova novels. Based on the analysis phase, consistency of spirituality motifs can be found in the six novels as a process searching in life, and it is an attempt to fulfill the self-emptiness to find the meaning of life. Spirituality plasticity in the six novels is more focused on the role of science as an element of building awareness of each individual. Key words: Propp, function, spirituality, plasticity

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document