Out Takes: Essays on Queer Theory and Film (Series Q) [Paperback]

Ellis Hanson (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Series Q | Publication Date: April 12, 1999

This collection brings together the work of both film scholars and queer theorists to advance a more sophisticated notion of queer film criticism. While the “politics of representation” has been the focus of much previous gay and lesbian film criticism, the contributors to Out Takes employ the approaches of queer theory to move beyond conventional readings and to reexamine aspects of the cinematic gaze in relation to queer desire and spectatorship.

The essays examine a wide array of films, including Calamity Jane, Rear Window, The Hunger, Heavenly Creatures, and Bound , and discuss such figures as Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, and Alfred Hitchcock. Divided into three sections, the first part reconsiders the construction of masculinity and male homoerotic desire—especially with respect to the role of women—in classic cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. The second section offers a deconstructive consideration of lesbian film spectatorship and lesbian representation. Part three looks at the historical trajectory of independent queer cinema, including works by H.D., Kenneth Anger, and Derek Jarman.

By exploring new approaches to the study of sexuality in film, Out Takes will be useful to scholars in gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, and cinema studies.

Contributors. Bonnie Burns, Steven Cohan, Alexander Doty, Lee Edelman, Michelle Elleray, Jim Ellis, Ellis Hanson, D. A. Miller, Eric Savoy, Matthew Tinkcom, Amy Villarejo, Jean Walton

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dedicated to sniffing out the pansy quotient in ostensibly straight texts, queer theory sounds like fun ... It's certainly amusing to regard Hope and Crosby as illicit paramours in their 40s 'Road to ...' comedies, but I wish the creative misreader Steven Cohan didn't feel the need to unpack every last double entendre. The same goes for Alexander Doty, who ponders the latent homoerotics of Powell and Pressburger. " (and so it goes on)--Sight and Sound, February 2000"The whole is well designed, readable and illustrated with frame enlargements. The contributions retain the best aspects of queer theory's appealing revision of the past, revealing examination of the present and weather eye on the future. The volume is also welcome in that it is not purely located in the labyrinthine psychoanalytic underworld where much similar work tends to be found, and many of the contributions retain the sense of humour that is happily part of much of queer theory's style."--Mark Brownrigg, University of Stirling, SCOPE

About the Author

Ellis Hanson is Assistant Professor of English at Cornell University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (April 12, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822323427
• ISBN-13: 978-0822323426
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading, April 1, 2002

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Holly K Johnson (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out Takes: Essays on Queer Theory and Film (Series Q) (Paperback)

Everything you'd expect and hope to find in a scholarly work on film and queer theory, and a good many surprises. Ellis Hanson's well edited collection has found its way onto numerous college reading lists and will doubtless stay on them for years to come as this is indeed a seminal volume in the history (brief as it is) of queer theory and film. Academic yet readable and engaging, these essays leave behind discussion of queer films in terms of whether or not they contain "good" or "positive" representations of gay men and lesbians, and rather celebrate what is illusive, problematic, complex, and interesting about the queer themes and characters that have appeared in film since its earliest days.
Hanson's own essay tackles lesbian vampire films, a genre which most critics and film theorists have seldom taken seriously. By the time he's done with it, however, you can't imagine how lesbian vampires could have been igorned for so long. The book, like Hanson's essay, invites us into new and unfamiliar territory and rewards us with fascinating perspectives and analytic energy that can only come when scholars are turned loose on fresh subject matter.
Although talking about anything "queer" is apt to offend certain constituencies, these essays cannot be lightly dismissed. The book is challenging, provocative, and absolutely essential reading for anyone who is interested in queer theory, film, or both.