New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813534860 ISBN 13: 9780813534862

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Coined in the early 1990s to describe a burgeoning film movement, "New Queer Cinema" has turned the attention of film theorists, students, and audiences, to the proliferation of intelligent, stylish, and daring work by lesbian and gay filmmakers within independent cinema and to the proliferation of "queer" images and themes within the mainstream. Why did this transition take place? Was it political gains, cultural momentum, or market forces that energized the evolution and transformation of this cinematic genre? The volume is divided into four sections: defining "new queer cinema," assessing its filmmakers, examining geographic and national differences, and theorizing spectatorship. Chapters address the pivotal directors (Todd Haynes and Gregg Araki) and salient films (Paris is Burning, Boys Don't Cry), as well as nonmainstream and non-Anglo-American work (experimental filmmaking and third world cinema). With a critical eye to its uneasy relationship to the mainstream, New Queer Cinema explores the aesthetic, sociocultural, political, and, necessarily, commercial investments of the movement. Although there are certainly other books on gay and lesbian issues in film, this is the first full-length study of recent developments in queer cinema, combining indispensable discussions of central issues with exciting new work by key writers. Features .Provides a definitive introduction to New Queer Cinema .Clear structure with each section addressing a key topic in the study of New Queer Cinema .Themes covered include genre, gender and race, politics, media, and the relationship between New Queer Cinema and the mainstream. Michele Aaron is Lecturer in Film Studies at Brunel University, London.

About this title

Review:

"New Queer Cinema is a very worthwhile, timely project, and Aaron's informed critical perspective is evidence throughout."

About the Author:

MICHELE AARON is lecturer in film studies at Brunel University, London, where she also co-edits the on-line journal EnterText. She is the editor of The Body's Perilous Pleasures: Dangerous Desires and Contemporary Culture.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0813534860
• ISBN 13: 9780813534862
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Aaron Michele