Heroes and happy endings : class, gender, and nation in popular film and fiction in interwar Britain / Christine Grandy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grandy, Christine, author.

Series:

Studies in popular culture (Manchester, England)

Studies in popular culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Social classes--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Social classes.

Gender identity--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Gender identity.

Great Britain.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 242) : illustrations (black and white); digital file(s).

Distribution:

New York : Distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2014.

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, [2016]

System Details:

data file

Summary:

This is a highly anticipated examination of the popular film and fiction consumed by Britons in the 1920s and 1930s. Departing from a prevailing emphasis on popular culture as escapist, Christine Grandy offers a fresh perspective by noting the enduring importance of class and gender divisions in the narratives read and watched by the working and middle classes between the wars. This compelling study ties contemporary concerns about ex-soldiers, profiteers, and working and voting women to the heroes, villains and love-interests that dominated a range of films and novels. This book further considers the state's role in shaping the content of popular narratives through censorship. An important and highly readable work for scholars and students interested in cultural and social history, as well as media and film studies, this book is sure to shift our understanding of the role of mass culture in the 1920s and 1930s.

Contents:

Introduction: the role of popular culture between the wars

A man imagined: heroes, work, and nation

The shape of villainy: profiteering and money-men

That magic moment: the female love-interest and the villainess

Building character: censorship, the Home Office, and the BBFC

Conclusion: thoughts on heroes, villains, and love-interests beyond 1939

Appendix: censorable items compiled in 1917 from the BBFC's annual reports of 1913-15.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781526111203

1526111209

9781526111210

1526111217

OCLC:

978500746