Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes / Maggie Hennefeld.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hennefeld, Maggie, author.

Series:

Film and culture.

Film and Culture Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comedy films--History and criticism.

Comedy films.

Silent films--History and criticism.

Silent films.

Women comedians.

Women in motion pictures.

Human body in motion pictures.

Sex role in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (383 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"In Specters of Slapstick, Hennefeld focuses on silent film comediennes and the function of the female body in early slapstick. Laughter is a kind of grating against the absurdity of society, argues Hennefeld. But while male bodies in slapstick tried to violently fight or "escape" their surroundings--slipping on a banana peel and falling, for example--female bodies exhibited a fluidity that reflected an attempt to morph into their changing surroundings. In one slapstick film, a maid humorously cuts off her limbs in order to finish all her household chores in time. In others, women transform into fairies or spiders; all underscore an attempt to assimilate their bodies to the demands of changing environments. This eradicates the traditional opposition between performer and audience, making the "laughing spectator" a more active part of the film experience. As Hennefeld analyzes early slapstick film historiography in light of this theory, she examines larger themes like the evolution of gender, the body, and their place in cinematic comedy"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1. Early Film Combustion

1. Early Cinema and the Comedy of Female Catastrophe

2. Female Combustion and Feminist Film Historiography

Part 2. Transitional Film Metamorphosis

3. Slapstick Comediennes in Transitional Cinema: Between Body and Medium

4. The Geopolitics of Transitional Film Comedy: American Vitagraph Versus French Pathé-Frerès

5. D. W. Griffith’s Slapstick Comediennes: Female Corporeality and Narrative Film Storytelling

Part 3. Feminist Slapstick Politics

6. Film Comedy Aesthetics and Suffragette Social Politics

7. Radical Militancy and Slapstick Political Violence

Postscript: Haunted Laughter at Late Comediennes

Annotated Filmography

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Aug 2018)

ISBN:

9780231547062

0231547064

OCLC:

1028523817