Differences in the dark : American movies and English theater
In this innovative attempt to place the movies and theater in the larger context of American and English cultural differences, Michael Gilmore demonstrates that the most interesting way to understand the distinctions between the two cultures is by looking closely at each country's favorite art form. Differences in the Dark is a fresh, wide-ranging look at the meaning of America's fascination with movies and movie stars, and the way the soul of Britain is reflected in its tenacious love affair with the stage
x, 188 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780231112246, 0231112246
38090949
Differences in the dark
Dreams and memories
Recollections of a London theatergoer
Random parallels between the cinema and America
Speed-modernity
Time and space
Size (and space again)
Styles of capitalism
Populism and "rural toryism": American defeat, English triumph
Money
Wealth
Climate
Abundance and scarcity
Individualism
Privacy
Bodies and the senses
Theme parks
Jews
Things or the reign of commodities
Death
Religion
Politics and democracy
Being and doing: meritocratic and class society
Afterthought on being and doing
The movies and the novel (parts 1 and 2)
Memory and culture
Monarchs and actors
English movies, and American theater
Realism, nature, and the frontier
Aside on Stephen Crane
Richard Chase and the exceptionalism of American culture. History lessons: imperialism, the English stage, and American movies
Excursus: the fifties and the Cold War
Annus Mirabilis: 1956
A note on Brecht and the cinema: The birth of a nation
Sameness and difference
Pros and cons
Last things, strange days