
Retrovisions
Reinventing the Past in Film and Fiction
Pluto Press
Published on 20. September 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-0-7453-1578-2 (ISBN)
Description
The contributors to Retrovisions consider what happens to history in the movies. Focusing on films and texts from the 1950s to the 1990s, the contributors argue that the past has always come to us by way of previous texts and culturally bounded aesthetic categories, and that history films - to the despair of historians - have always taken a 'postmodern' approach to their subject, seeing the past as a dynamic resource for exciting stories and poetic, morally uplifting untruths. Why do certain decades appeal at certain times? And what does the renewal of interest in narrative history reveal about our culture at the start of the new millennium?
The authors address the variety of ways in which history can be used, refashioned and made over to reflect current concerns - and how history films from the past can be reinterrogated to learn what they tell us about their own times. The films discussed include Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love, Culloden, The Avengers, Titus, and several adaptations of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, including Cruel Intentions.
The authors address the variety of ways in which history can be used, refashioned and made over to reflect current concerns - and how history films from the past can be reinterrogated to learn what they tell us about their own times. The films discussed include Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love, Culloden, The Avengers, Titus, and several adaptations of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, including Cruel Intentions.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 135 mm
Weight
260 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7453-1578-2 (9780745315782)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Deborah Cartmell | I. Q. Hunter | Imelda Whelehan
Retrovisions
Reinventing the Past in Film and Fiction
E-Book
09/2001
1st Edition
Pluto Press
€124.99
Available for download
Persons
Deborah Cartmell is a Professor in English Literature at De Montfort University.
I.Q. Hunter is the Professor of Film Studies at De Montfort University. His books include, The Routledge Companion to British Cinema History (Routledge, 2017) and Alien Identities (Pluto Press, 1999).
Imelda Whelehan is a Research Professor in English and Gender Studies. Her books include, Classics in Film and Fiction (Pluto Press, 2000), The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen (CUP, 2007) and Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism (Palgrave, 2014).
I.Q. Hunter is the Professor of Film Studies at De Montfort University. His books include, The Routledge Companion to British Cinema History (Routledge, 2017) and Alien Identities (Pluto Press, 1999).
Imelda Whelehan is a Research Professor in English and Gender Studies. Her books include, Classics in Film and Fiction (Pluto Press, 2000), The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen (CUP, 2007) and Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism (Palgrave, 2014).
Content
Notes on Contributors
1. Introduction: Retrovisions: Historical Make-overs in Film and Literature
Deborah Cartmell and I.Q Hunter
2. 'No Man's Elizabeth': The Virgin Queen in Recent Films
Renee Pigeon
3. Shakespeare in Love and the End(s) of History
Elizabeth Klett
4. Reflections on Sex, Shakespeare and Nostalgia in Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night
Maria F. Magro and Mark Douglas
5. Black Rams Tupping White Ewes: Race vs. Gender in the Final Scene of Five Othellos
Pascale Aebischer
6. Cool Intentions: Looking back to the literary classic and other attempts to legitimise the teenpic's 'chick flick'
Sarah Neely
7. Mrs Brown's Mourning and Mr King's Madness: Royal Crisis on Screen
Kara McKechnie
8. Peter Watkins' Culloden and the alternative form in historical filmmaking Nicholas J. Cull
9. The Grandfathers' War Re-Imagining World War I in British Novels and Films of the 1990s
Barbara Korte
10. 'Charm, Bowler, Umbrella, Leather Boots': Remaking The Avengers
Stephen Longstaffe
11. Forbidden Planet and the retrospective attribution of intentions
Judith Buchanan
Index
1. Introduction: Retrovisions: Historical Make-overs in Film and Literature
Deborah Cartmell and I.Q Hunter
2. 'No Man's Elizabeth': The Virgin Queen in Recent Films
Renee Pigeon
3. Shakespeare in Love and the End(s) of History
Elizabeth Klett
4. Reflections on Sex, Shakespeare and Nostalgia in Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night
Maria F. Magro and Mark Douglas
5. Black Rams Tupping White Ewes: Race vs. Gender in the Final Scene of Five Othellos
Pascale Aebischer
6. Cool Intentions: Looking back to the literary classic and other attempts to legitimise the teenpic's 'chick flick'
Sarah Neely
7. Mrs Brown's Mourning and Mr King's Madness: Royal Crisis on Screen
Kara McKechnie
8. Peter Watkins' Culloden and the alternative form in historical filmmaking Nicholas J. Cull
9. The Grandfathers' War Re-Imagining World War I in British Novels and Films of the 1990s
Barbara Korte
10. 'Charm, Bowler, Umbrella, Leather Boots': Remaking The Avengers
Stephen Longstaffe
11. Forbidden Planet and the retrospective attribution of intentions
Judith Buchanan
Index