British Rural Landscapes on Film - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1526119862 ISBN 13: 9781526119865

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2019

Synopsis

This volume offers insights into how rural areas of Britain have been represented on film, from the silent era through both world wars and on into the twenty-first century. It is the first book to deal exclusively with representations of the British countryside on film. The contributors demonstrate that the countryside has provided Britain and its constituent nations and regions with a dense range of spaces in which cultural identities have been and continue to be worked through. Overall, the book demonstrates that British cinema provides numerous examples of how national identity and the identity of the countryside have been constructed through filmic representation, and how British rural films can help us to understand the relationship between the cultural identities of specific areas of Britain and the landscapes they inhabit.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Newland is Senior Lecturer in Film at Aberystwyth University

From the Back Cover

This is the first book to deal exclusively with cinematic representations of the British countryside. It offers original insights into how rural areas in Britain have been represented on film, from the silent era, through both world wars and on into the twenty-first century. It balances new scholarly articles with interviews with two key contemporary British filmmakers (Patrick Keiller and Gideon Koppel).

The contributors to this book demonstrate that the countryside has provided Britain and its constituent nations and regions with a dense range of spaces in which contested cultural identities have been, and continue to be, worked through. The diverse and varied essays draw on a range of popular and alternative films and genres in order to demonstrate how far film representations come to shape - and be shaped by - the material and embodied circumstances of what we might think of as 'lived' rural experience. They also show how representations of British rural landscapes in films often drawn on tropes previously seen in literature and art.

This collection focuses on questions of modernity versus tradition, nationhood, and the relationship between the global and the local. It will be of interest to scholars of British cinema history, British film, cultural geography and rural studies in particular, as well as the general reader.

From the Inside Flap

This is the first book to deal exclusively with cinematic representations of the British countryside. It offers original insights into how rural areas in Britain have been represented on film, from the silent era, through both world wars and on into the twenty-first century. It balances new scholarly articles with interviews with two key contemporary British filmmakers (Patrick Keiller and Gideon Koppel). The contributors to this book demonstrate that the countryside has provided Britain and its constituent nations and regions with a dense range of spaces in which contested cultural identities have been, and continue to be, worked through. The diverse and varied essays draw on a range of popular and alternative films and genres in order to demonstrate how far film representations come to shape - and be shaped by - the material and embodied circumstances of what we might think of as 'lived' rural experience. They also show how representations of British rural landscapes in films often drawn on tropes previously seen in literature and art. This collection focuses on questions of modernity versus tradition, nationhood, and the relationship between the global and the local. It will be of interest to scholars of British cinema history, British film, cultural geography and rural studies in particular, as well as the general reader.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526119862
• ISBN 13: 9781526119865
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Newland Paul