The Richard Dyer Reader
Published on 7. September 2023
Book
Hardback
560 pages
978-1-83902-317-0 (ISBN)
Description
Richard Dyer is a foundational figure for the critical study of cinema and popular culture. Across a career spanning five decades, he has made path breaking contributions to our understanding of stardom and celebrity, gay and queer politics and cultural history, film music, race and whiteness and the pleasures of popular entertainment.
The Richard Dyer Reader brings together for the first time key writings by this vital and influential figure, many of which are not otherwise available. The anthology guides readers through Dyer's prolific and rich output through six thematic selections of essays and extracts, each centred on a key theme in Dyer's work: stardom and the image; entertainment and ideology; gay politics and representation; whiteness; the pleasures of popular entertainment, and textual analysis. A seventh section comprises a selection of interviews conducted across the span of his career, as well as a new interview with editors Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman.
The book will provide an introduction for those new to Dyer's writings, as well as offering a fresh perspective for readers with a more comprehensive knowledge of his work. The collection includes archival and recent pieces of writing never previously anthologised, newly commissioned essays, a substantial introduction to Dyer's life and work and framing introduction to each section.
The Richard Dyer Reader brings together for the first time key writings by this vital and influential figure, many of which are not otherwise available. The anthology guides readers through Dyer's prolific and rich output through six thematic selections of essays and extracts, each centred on a key theme in Dyer's work: stardom and the image; entertainment and ideology; gay politics and representation; whiteness; the pleasures of popular entertainment, and textual analysis. A seventh section comprises a selection of interviews conducted across the span of his career, as well as a new interview with editors Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman.
The book will provide an introduction for those new to Dyer's writings, as well as offering a fresh perspective for readers with a more comprehensive knowledge of his work. The collection includes archival and recent pieces of writing never previously anthologised, newly commissioned essays, a substantial introduction to Dyer's life and work and framing introduction to each section.
Reviews / Votes
Richard Dyer is one of the most important film scholars in the world - establishing the fields of star and sexuality studies while exercising a huge influence on the analysis of race and gender in popular culture. It is remarkable that his work has not yet been collected in this kind of volume - perhaps because he is rightly careful about how to do it. In Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman, he has the perfect anthologists. -- Mandy Merck, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK For half a century, Dyer has been one of the most important, impassioned and insightful observers in film/media and cultural studies. The Richard Dyer Reader's selections - on action film, musicals, politics, gay pornography, whiteness, television, disco, stardom and much more - showcase Dyer at his blissfully jargon-free best. -- Chris Holmlund, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, USA As with any collection, its success is shaped by the editors and it is a testament to Davis and Kooijman that the anthology is comprehensive, enlightening and unexpected, instantly positioning it as indispensable for Dyer neophiles and completists. * Screen *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
114 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 250 mm
Width: 186 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
1656 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83902-317-0 (9781839023170)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Richard Dyer is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at King's College London, UK. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, recipient of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies' Lifetime Achievement Award, and of Honorary Lifetime Membership of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. His pioneering work on gay and lesbian representation and on popular entertainment has been published in books including Now You See It: Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film (1990); White (1993); Stars (2nd edition, BFI, 1998); Pastiche (2006); In the Space of a Song (2011); Nino Rota: Music, Film and Feeling (BFI, 2010) and Lethal Repetition: Serial Killing in European Cinema (BFI, 2015). He is the author of BFI Film Classics on Se7en (1997); Brief Encounter (2015) and La dolce vita (2017 and 2020). He is a writer and reviewer for outlets including Sight & Sound, The Atlantic, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service.
Glyn Davis is Professor of Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, UK. Jaap Kooijman is Associate Professor in Media Studies and American Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Glyn Davis is Professor of Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, UK. Jaap Kooijman is Associate Professor in Media Studies and American Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction - Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman
I: A STAR IS BORN and other essays on stardom and image
1. A Star is Born and the construction of authenticity (1981)
2. The meaning of Tom Jones (1971)
3. Gene Kelly (1972)
4. Jane Fonda (1979)
5. The way she is (1981)
6. Diana Ross (1982)
7. Never too thin (1993)
8. Charles Hawtrey (1994)
9. Between parturition and manufacture (2018)
II: IN DEFENCE OF DISCO and other essays on entertainment and ideology
10. In defence of disco (1979)
11. Views of Nationwide go wide (1980)
12. Coronation Street (1981)
13. Tea and cocoa tele (1982)
14. Bad for a laugh (1982)
15. Taking popular television seriously (1985)
16. The colour of entertainment (1995)
17. Jurassic World and procreation anxiety (2015)
III: GETTING OVER THE RAINBOW and other essays on gay liberation
18. Getting over the rainbow: identity and pleasure in gay cultural politics (1981)
19. Notes on gays and class (1976)
20. Pasolini and homosexuality (1977)
21. Taxi zum Klo (1982)
22. Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies (1983)
23. Rock: the last guy you'd have figured? (1985)
24. Nice young men who sell antiques: gay men in heritage cinema (2001)
25. The idea of a gay icon (2009)
IV: WHITE and other essays on representation and visibility
26. White (1988)
27. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the right to love oneself (1968)
28. The role of stereotypes (1979)
29. Of rage and despair (1981)
30. Don't look now: the instabilities of the male pin-up (1982)
31. Heterosexuality (1997)
32. Is the camera racist? (1997)
33. White enough (2013)
34. The president's hair (2018)
V: COMING TO TERMS and other essays on bodies and affect
35. Male gay porn: coming to terms (1985)
36. Scorpio Rising (1981)
37. Why dance? (1981)
38. Old briefs for new (1989)
39. Dracula and desire (1993)
40. Idol thoughts: orgasm and self-reflexivity in gay pornography (1994)
41. ACTION! (1994)
42. The same over and over (2015)
43. Fond of little tunes: the sissiness of music in Rope and Tea and Sympathy (2023)
VI: THE PERSISTENCE OF TEXTUAL ANALYSIS and other essays on form and meaning
44. The persistence of textual analysis (2023)
45. The television situation (1973)
46. The Towering Inferno (1975)
47. Notes on textual analysis (1981)
48. The space of happiness in the musical (1998)
49. Sound in Seven (1999)
50. The talented Mr Rota (2004)
51. Far from Heaven (2007)
52. Going Italian (2011)
53. Eisenstein's penis (2023)
VII: MASCULINITY IS SO BORING and other conversations with Richard Dyer
54. Masculinity is so boring (1985) (with Joe McElhaney)
55. To be reel (1997) (with Matthew Rettenmund)
56. Pleasure | obvious | queer (2016) (with Catherine Grant and Jaap Kooijman)
57. Writing out of love or politics (2023) (with Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman)
Index
Introduction - Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman
I: A STAR IS BORN and other essays on stardom and image
1. A Star is Born and the construction of authenticity (1981)
2. The meaning of Tom Jones (1971)
3. Gene Kelly (1972)
4. Jane Fonda (1979)
5. The way she is (1981)
6. Diana Ross (1982)
7. Never too thin (1993)
8. Charles Hawtrey (1994)
9. Between parturition and manufacture (2018)
II: IN DEFENCE OF DISCO and other essays on entertainment and ideology
10. In defence of disco (1979)
11. Views of Nationwide go wide (1980)
12. Coronation Street (1981)
13. Tea and cocoa tele (1982)
14. Bad for a laugh (1982)
15. Taking popular television seriously (1985)
16. The colour of entertainment (1995)
17. Jurassic World and procreation anxiety (2015)
III: GETTING OVER THE RAINBOW and other essays on gay liberation
18. Getting over the rainbow: identity and pleasure in gay cultural politics (1981)
19. Notes on gays and class (1976)
20. Pasolini and homosexuality (1977)
21. Taxi zum Klo (1982)
22. Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies (1983)
23. Rock: the last guy you'd have figured? (1985)
24. Nice young men who sell antiques: gay men in heritage cinema (2001)
25. The idea of a gay icon (2009)
IV: WHITE and other essays on representation and visibility
26. White (1988)
27. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the right to love oneself (1968)
28. The role of stereotypes (1979)
29. Of rage and despair (1981)
30. Don't look now: the instabilities of the male pin-up (1982)
31. Heterosexuality (1997)
32. Is the camera racist? (1997)
33. White enough (2013)
34. The president's hair (2018)
V: COMING TO TERMS and other essays on bodies and affect
35. Male gay porn: coming to terms (1985)
36. Scorpio Rising (1981)
37. Why dance? (1981)
38. Old briefs for new (1989)
39. Dracula and desire (1993)
40. Idol thoughts: orgasm and self-reflexivity in gay pornography (1994)
41. ACTION! (1994)
42. The same over and over (2015)
43. Fond of little tunes: the sissiness of music in Rope and Tea and Sympathy (2023)
VI: THE PERSISTENCE OF TEXTUAL ANALYSIS and other essays on form and meaning
44. The persistence of textual analysis (2023)
45. The television situation (1973)
46. The Towering Inferno (1975)
47. Notes on textual analysis (1981)
48. The space of happiness in the musical (1998)
49. Sound in Seven (1999)
50. The talented Mr Rota (2004)
51. Far from Heaven (2007)
52. Going Italian (2011)
53. Eisenstein's penis (2023)
VII: MASCULINITY IS SO BORING and other conversations with Richard Dyer
54. Masculinity is so boring (1985) (with Joe McElhaney)
55. To be reel (1997) (with Matthew Rettenmund)
56. Pleasure | obvious | queer (2016) (with Catherine Grant and Jaap Kooijman)
57. Writing out of love or politics (2023) (with Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman)
Index