1,720,962 research outputs found
Notions of the Gothic in the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Full text linkThe films of Alfred Hitchcock were made within the confines of the commercial film industries in Britain and the USA and related to popular cultural traditions such as the thriller and the spy story. However, many of the films possess characteristics associated with 'high' culture. Part of the interest in his work lies in the ways in which such traditions intersect with and accommodate each other and how they relate to the other determining contexts of the director's work. This thesis focuses upon the cultural and literary tradition of the 'Gothic' and the German Expressionist cinema of the 1920s as key influences upon Hitchcock's work in general and on some of his films in particular. Part of the work consists of an overview of Gothic literature in its many forms with specific attention to the classic English Gothic. A definition is provided, based upon the identification of the main elements and motifs of the tradition. There is also a study of the German Expressionist film which identifies its main features, locates it in the history of silent cinema and relates it to the tradition of the Gothic. The main part of the work is a detailed study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, relating them to the cultural tradition of the Gothic and to its specific manifestation in the German Expressionist film. This involves consideration of the concept of'influence' and the extent to which Hitchcock's films derive from such traditions; an analysis of the films which identifies Gothic and Expressionist features; an assessment of the ways in which such traditions were mixed with others, including classical narrative structure and style, generic traditions of suspense and romance, to produce the distinctive form and content of the Hitchcock film; and a consideration of the ways in which such traditions played a role in much of Hitchcock's output, regardless of the different genres in which he worked. Research has included primary sources: Gothic novels (from 1764 to the present day) and the films of both Hitchcock and the German Expressionist directors; and secondary sources and critical studies of the Gothic texts and the films. There has been much written on the Gothic tradition although many critics fail to explain the term or to identify what the genre actually represents. Similarly, though much has been written on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock's films, the topic of Gothic has only really been referred to briefly and no one has addressed it in any detail
Discourses recognizing aesthetic innovation in cinema : Bonnie and Clyde : A case study.
Full text linkWithin this thesis I primarily explore the notion of aesthetic innovation in the cinema. Whilst I initially intended to develop two case studies, considering films associated with two cinematic trends - the Hollywood Renaissance and Dogme 95 -the finished thesis concentrates on Bonnie and Clyde, which exemplifies the first of these. The focus entails an elaboration of the concept of innovation, adopted from economic approaches, in terms of the implications of the concept for how innovation should be analysed. In particular, this informs my focus upon the articulation of recognition of innovation, and hence discourses of innovation. In investigating the recognition of innovation in Bonnie and Clyde, I provide a detailed critical reception study, analysing the contemporary and retrospective reviews and critical accounts of the film. I develop the functional and systemic linguistic analysis of M.A.K. Halliday to underpin a workable discourse analysis approach to the contemporary reviews. I also consider the wider reception of the film, particularly in relation to the dialogues around the reviews of the film by Bosley Crowther in the New York Times. Thus, I consider the significance of the contestation around the film - in terms of its evaluation, classification and description. I consider this 'event' of the widespread contestation around the film, and the turnaround by several noted critics, and contrast the conclusions of my analysis of the event with the conventional narrativization of it.In order to consider the aesthetic characteristics of the film, I provide definitions of cinema aesthetics, adapting the notions of aesthetic norm, function and value from Jan Mukarovsky. I also develop these in relation to the concept of aestheticization, which I relate to Bonnie and Clyde and other films of the Hollywood Renaissance.The thesis constitutes an original elucidation of the notion of innovation, and an innovative application of discourse analysis to reception study
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Margaret Rutherford, Alastair Sim, eccentricity and the British character actor
No full textThe thesis is in the form of four sections, with an introduction and conclusion. The text
should be used in conjunction with the annotated filmography.
The introduction includes my initial impressions of Margaret Rutherford and Alastair Sim's work, and its significance for British cinema as a whole.
In order to determine their enduring appeal, the first section, 'Biographical Perspectives', uses the actors' respective biographies to combine their very distinct identities, anchor them in the time in which they lived, and indicate their value and importance to the industry.
The second chapter explores the complex relationship between the British cinema and the theatre, especially as it is revealed in the work of both actors.
There follows a survey which addresses notions around Britishness and eccentricity, and their interconnections, their representation in Sim and Rutherford's films, and recent debates about what these attributes constitute now.
The fourth part engages in a broader discussion of the art of character acting and the specific contribution made by the screen appearances of the two stars.
If the introduction and subsequent chapters attempt to bring Sim and Rutherford together, the conclusion presents the contrasts between them. However, their continuing fascination is very much revealed through the interaction of their life and work and especially the influence
of their respective spouses. The relationship between their stage and cinematic output informs some of their best work in both media, although their Britishness and eccentricity can, at different times, be both an asset and a limitation. Ultimately, Sim and Rutherford are defined as flexible and diverse character actors, although a synthesis of their various aspects - cinematic, theatrical, eccentric, British, character actors - offers a more complete designation of their individuality. Above all, they exemplify the primacy of performance in British cinema.
Future research might concentrate on their theatre work or reactions to them by their fellow actors, and could also usefully incorporate the largely unrecognised legacy of so many other character players
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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