Guilty pleasures : European audiences and contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy / Alice Guilluy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guilluy, Alice, author.

Series:

Library of gender and popular culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Romantic comedy films--United States--History and criticism.

Romantic comedy films.

Motion picture audiences--Europe.

Motion picture audiences.

Motion pictures, American--Europe.

Motion pictures, American.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (256 pages).

Edition:

First edition.

Distribution:

[London, England] : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021

Place of Publication:

London [England] : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.

Summary:

"In Guilty Pleasures, Alice Guilluy examines the reception of contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy by European audiences. She offers a new look at the romantic comedy genre through a qualitative study of its consumption by actual audiences. In doing so, she attempts to challenge traditional critiques of the genre as trite "escapism" at best, and dangerous "guilty pleasure" at worst. Despite this cultural anxiety, little work has been done on the genre's real audiences. Guilluy addresses this gap by presenting the results of a major qualitative study of the genre's reception, based on interview research with rom-com viewers in Britain, France and Germany, focusing on Sweet Home Alabama (2002, dir. Andy Tennant). Throughout the interviews, participants attempted to distance themselves from what they described as the "typical" rom-com viewer: the uneducated, gullible, overly emotional (American) woman. Guilluy calls this fantasy figure the "phantom spectatrix". Guilluy complements this with a critical examination of the press reviews of the 20 biggest-grossing rom-coms at the worldwide box-office in order to contextualise the findings of her audience research"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

Transcription Conventions

Series Editors' Foreword

Introduction: 'Lights, action? and pure treacle'

1. 'Health warning: high-sugar content': The Rom-com and the Critics

2. 'The pudding works splendidly': Genre, Emotions and Pleasure

3. 'Candy-pink cage?' Gender, Feminism and the Phantom Viewer

4. 'Chomping on a burger with a glass of coke': the Americanness of Romantic Comedy

Conclusion: 'Cinder-fuckin'-rella'

Endnotes

Works Cited

Appendix 1: Semi-Structured Interview Questions

Appendix 2: Participant Tables

Appendix 3: Sweet Home Alabama

Synopsis

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350163065

1350163066

1-350-16305-8

OCLC:

1230250950