Chapter 1 Introduction: What Is Queer Film History? Chapter 2 1 From Pansies to Predators: Queer Characters in Early American Cinema Chapter 3 2 Discreet Charms: Queer Filmmakers in Classical Hollywood Chapter 4 3 "Those Wonderful People Out There in the Dark": Queer Audiences and Classical Hollywood Cinema Chapter 5 4 Fear and Loathing in Postwar Hollywood Chapter 6 5 Exploitation or Art? Queer Films beyond Hollywood Chapter 7 6 Hollywood and the Sexual Revolution Chapter 8 7 Producing Pride: Queers Make Movies Chapter 9 8 Out of the Closet and into the Art House Chapter 10 9 A Matter of Life and Death: AIDS, Activism, Film, and Video Chapter 11 10 Hollywood Is Burning: New Queer Cinema Chapter 12 11 Queer Eye for the Straight Hollywood Executive Chapter 13 12 Queer Independent Film at the Turn of the Millennium Chapter 14 Select Bibliography
Harry M. Benshoff is associate professor of radio, television, and film at the University of North Texas and author of Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film. Sean Griffin is associate professor of film and media studies at Southern Methodist University and author of Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out. They are the co-authors of America on Film and the co-editors of Queer Cinema: The Film Reader.
[An] excellent general history of queer sexualities in American
film over the past 100 years. . . . The college professor authors
maintain an accessible style and vocabulary even while tackling
prickly points and turns of queer theory. Like [Vito] Russo's
groundbreaking study, this new contribution to the field is
essential.
*Publishers Weekly*
Media professors Benshoff and Griffin set out to create the
definitive guide to queer issues in American cinema, and they have
succeeded admirably. Using an erudite yet easily readable approach,
they explore homosexuality in the movies. . . . What's refreshing
about this work is that it's not a one-sided criticism but a guide
through the more progressive development of the presentation of
gays in movies; readers are left with hope for the future. Highly
recommended for general, gay and lesbian, and especially film
collections.
*Library Journal*
Replaces Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet as the authoritative
text on this subject. Writing in an engaging, literate style,
Benshoff and Griffin brilliantly interweave film theory and queer
theory with a history of the U.S. film industry, a complicated
task. The authors display remarkable, almost archival knowledge of
gay representation in classic Hollywood film and the contributions
of queer artists to these films. Including an invaluable
bibliography, this volume is now the standard for those interested
in gay and lesbian film in the U.S. Essential.
*CHOICE*
The productive duo Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin have provided in
Queer Images a much-needed survey of a field of ongoing historical
discovery and socio-cultural turbulence. An ideal textbook for the
burgeoning network of queer cinema undergraduate courses, Queer
Images is an elegantly clear and comprehensive, jargon-free update
of Vito Russo and Richard Dyer for the queer twenty-first century.
The book bursts with vivid questions and case studies drawn from
the tapestry of film history—a tonic for an amnesiac generation of
readers, queer and otherwise.
*Thomas Waugh, Concordia University*
Mssrs. Benshoff and Griffin ably guide the avid reader through this
by-now vast yet still under exposed field of entertainment and
concern. For better or usually worse, motion pictures and the
visual media are overly influential in defining who and what
non-heterosexual people are. Understandably, a minority that mostly
fails to identify and define itself will be 'explained' and
misrepresented by others, especially its cross ill-wishers.
Benshoff and Griffin point out, entertainingly and urgently, the
false either-or 'thinking' that informs American attitudes toward
sexuality and gender in real life and reel life—crucially so, for
the huge chunk of citizens who believe they have never met 'a
homosexual.' Gay-, lesbian-, and bi-themed films and characters are
undeniably engaging—and often upsetting—but as this fun and
riveting book makes clear, it's one thing to preach 'liberty and
justice for all,' and another to practice it—on screen or in
life.
*Boze Hadleigh, author, The Lavender Screen*
Queer Images is an indispensable book for anyone studying the
history of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people in
film—and for anyone who just simply loves the movies. Comprehensive
and entertaining, Queer Images takes us on a fascinating journey
through old Hollywood and up through the world of independent film,
looking at queer films, filmmakers, and audiences, and how they
treated, reflected—and sometimes shaped—sexuality and sexual
identity. An important, timely must-read for film buffs of every
stripe.
*Michelangelo Signorile, talk show host; author, Life
Outside*
Do you want to know anything and everything about gay, lesbian,
bisexual, trans, and queer films, filmmakers, and film characters?
Then Queer Images is the book for you. It is a one-stop treasure
trove of information and sharply written observations. Each chapter
is filled with insights and surprises. No other history of queer
film has covered so much so skillfully.
*Alexander Doty, professor of gender studies and communication and
culture, Indiana University; author of Making Things Perfectly
Queer*
Queer Images is a fascinating, sweeping overview of the ways gay
men and lesbians have been portrayed on screen and what those
portrayals tell us about who we were—and are—as a society. An
impressive achievement.
*William J. Mann, author, Edge of Midnight and Behind the
Screen*
Kudos for Queer Images! Here's a book for anyone who loves films
and for everyone who's interested in broader discussions of
sexuality and culture. Chock full of background information on
shifting political, cultural, and industry contexts, a gold mine of
titles and names, Queer Images is a rewarding read. One of the most
comprehensive and up-to-date histories on the topic, Benshoff and
Griffin's volume surveys over one hundred years of movies, presents
key criticism, and introduces a range of directors, actors, and
film execs, too. A well-researched—and timely—addition to the
field.
*Chris Holmlund, author, Impossible Bodies; coeditor,
Contemporary American Independent Film*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |