Edna Ferber's Hollywood : American fictions of gender, race, and history / J.E. Smyth ; foreword by Thomas Schatz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smyth, J. E., 1977-

Series:

Texas film and media studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ferber, Edna, 1887-1968--Film adaptations.

Ferber, Edna.

Ferber, Edna, 1887-1968--Knowledge and learning--Motion picture industry.

Ferber, Edna, 1887-1968.

Motion picture industry.

Women in the motion picture industry--United States.

Women in the motion picture industry.

Historical fiction, American--Film adaptations.

Historical fiction, American.

Motion pictures--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

United States.

History.

Racism in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Genre:

Film adaptations.

Physical Description:

xiv, 337 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2010.

Summary:

Edna Ferber's Hollywood reveals one of the most influential artistic relationship of the twentieth century-the four-decade partnership between historical novelist Edna Ferber and the Hollywood studios. Ferber was one of America's most controversial popular historians, a writer whose uniquely feminist, multiracial view of the national past deliberately clashed with traditional narratives of white masculine power. Hollywood paid premium sums to adapt her novels, creating some of the most memorable films of the studio era-among them Show Boat, Cimarron, and Giant. Her historical fiction resonated with Hollywood's interest in prestigious historical filmmaking aimed principally, but not exclusively, at female audiences.

In Edna Ferber's Hollywood, J.E. Smyth explores the research, writing, marketing, reception, and production histories of Hollywood's Ferber franchise. Smyth tracks Ferber's working relationships with Samuel Goldwyn, Leland Hayward, George Stevens, and James Dean; her landmark contract negotiations with Warner Bros.; and the controversies surrounding Giant's critique of Jim-Crow Texas. But Edna Ferber's Hollywood is also the study of the historical vision of an American out-sider-a woman, a Jew, a novelist with few literary pretensions, an unashamed middlebrow who challenged the prescribed boundaries among gender, race, history, and fiction. In a masterful film and literary history, Smyth explores how Ferber's work helped shape Hollywood's attitude toward the American past.

Contents:

Edna Ferber's America and the fictions of history

The life of an unknown woman: So big, 1923-1953

Making believe: Show boat, race, and romance, 1925-1957

Marking the boundaries of classical Hollywood's rise and fall: Cimarron, 1928-1961

Writing for Hollywood: Come and get it and Saratoga trunk, 1933-1947

Jim Crow, Jett Rink, and James Dean: reconstructing Giant, 1952-1957

The new nationalism: Ice palace, 1954-1960.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780292719842

0292719841

OCLC:

318870278