Movie censorship and American culture / edited by Francis G. Couvares.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Couvares, Francis G., 1948-

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Censorship--United States.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Moral and ethical aspects.

Motion pictures--Censorship.

United States.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xviii, 334 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 2006.

Summary:

From the earliest days of public outrage over "indecent" nickelodeon shows, Americans have worried about the power of the movies. The eleven essays in this book examine nearly a century of struggle over cinematic representations of sex, crime, violence, religion, race, and ethnicity, revealing that the effort to regulate the screen has reflected deep social and cultural schisms. In addition to the editor, contributors include Daniel Czitrom, Marybeth Hamilton, Garth Jowett, Charles Lyons, Richard Maltby, Charles Musser, Alison M. Parker, Charlene Regester, Ruth Vasey, and Stephen Vaughn. Together they make it clear that censoring the movies is more than just a reflex against "indecency," however defined. Whether censorship protects the vulnerable or suppresses the creative, it is part of a broader culture war that breaks out recurrently as Americans try to come to terms with the market, the state and the plural society in which they live.

Contents:

The politics of performance : theater licensing and the origins of movie censorship in New York / Daniel Czitrom

Passions and the passion play : theater, film, and religion in America, 1880-1900 / Charles Musser

Mothering the movies : women reformers and popular culture / Alison M. Parker

"To prevent the prevalent type of book" : censorship and adaptation in Hollywood, 1924-1934 / Richard Maltby

Hollywood, main street, and the church : trying to censor the movies before the production code / Francis G. Couvares

Black films-white censors : Oscar Micheaux confronts censorship in New York, Virginia, and Chicago / Charlene Regester

Goodness had nothing to do with it : censoring Mae West / Marybeth Hamilton

Foreign parts : Hollywood's global distribution and the representation of ethnicity / Ruth Vasey

Political censorship during the Cold War : the Hollywood ten / Stephen Vaughn

"A significant medium for the communication of ideas" : the Miracle decision and the decline of motion picture censorship, 1952-1968 / Garth Jowett

The paradox of protest : American film, 1980-1992 / Charles Lyons.

Notes:

Originally published in 1996. With a new preface.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1558495754

9781558495753

OCLC:

70045990