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Mother Trouble: Mediations of White Maternal Angst after Second Wave Feminism
by Miranda J. BradyMother Trouble traces white maternal angst in popular culture across a span of more than fifty years, from the iconic Rosemary’s Baby to anti-vaxx mom memes and HGTV shows. The book narrows in on popular media to think about white maternal angst as a manifestation of feminism’s unrealized possibilities and continued omissions since the second wave. It interrogates intersecting systems of power which make mothers and their children the most impoverished people in the world and urges a greater appreciation in academic and popular thinking of the work that mothers do. The book calls for an analytical expansion beyond gender to better address the erasure of reproductive labour, and especially that performed by migrants and people of colour. It illustrates the continued marginalization of racialized mothers and the disproportionate amount of labour performed by all mothers in a society where their work is devalued. Ultimately, Mother Trouble reveals how the unease around white motherhood in the media has become a proxy for the troubles faced by all mothers.
Motherhood and Hollywood
by Patricia Heaton“The really important things in life are your family and friends. And what will people say about you at your funeral—that you won an Emmy once, or that you were a good person, kind and generous? Well, as for me, I hope it's the latter. And the fact that I recently commissioned an Emmy-shaped coffin just eliminates the need for anyone to bring it up. ” Everybody knows that Patricia Heaton plays the hilarious, wise, and tempestuous married-with-kids everywoman onEverybody Loves Raymond. What they might not know is that in real life she is married, has four boys under eight years old, and is just as funny offscreen as on. Motherhood and Hollywoodis Patricia Heaton’s humorous and poignant collection of essays on life, love, marriage, child-rearing, show business, having parents, being a parent, spousal rage, surviving fame, success, and the shame of underarm flab. She is warm, witty, and refreshingly irreverent. Heaton grew up in suburban Cleveland, one of five children of devout Roman Catholic parents. Her father was a noted sportswriter forThe Plain Dealer; her mother died suddenly and unexpectedly when Heaton was twelve. Love, fast food, and an unflagging sense of humor held the clan together and propelled Patricia on a showbiz career that began with hilariously nightmarish struggles in New York, eventually leading to a triumphant move to Los Angeles. InMotherhood and Hollywood, Patricia Heaton pours out her heart and minces no words. She’s taking all prisoners for cookies and a glass of Jack Daniel’s and diet ginger ale. Laughter ensues.
Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession
by Erma BombeckMotherhood is the second oldest profession in the world. It never questions age, height, religious preference, health, political affiliation, citizenship, morality, ethnic background, marital status, economic level, convenience, or previous experience. It's the biggest on-the-job training program in existence today.
Mothering Performance: Maternal Action (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Lena Šimić Emily Underwood-LeeMothering Performance is a combination of scholarly essays and creative responses which focus on maternal performance and its applications from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives. This collection extends the concept and action of ‘performance’ and connects it to the idea of ‘mothering’ as activity. Mothering, as a form of doing, is a site of never-ending political and personal production; it is situated in a specific place, and it is undertaken by specific bodies, marked by experience and context. The authors explore the potential of a maternal sensibility to move us towards maternal action that is explicitly political, ethical, and in relation to our others. Presented in three sections, Exchange, Practice, and Solidarity, the book includes international contributions from scholars and artists covering topics including ecology, migration, race, class, history, incarceration, mental health, domestic violence, intergenerational exchange, childcare, and peacebuilding. The collection gathers diverse maternal performance practices and methodologies which address aesthetics, dramaturgy, activism, pregnancy, everyday mothering, and menopause. The book is a great read for artists, maternal health and care professionals, and scholars. Researchers with an interest in feminist performance and motherhood, within the disciplines of performance studies, maternal studies, and women’s studies, and all those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of maternal experience, will find much of interest.
Motherless Child: The Definitive Biography of Eric Clapton
by Paul ScottFrom the Yardbirds to Cream, Blind Faith to Derek and the Dominos, and a hugely-successful solo career, Eric Clapton's fifty years in the music business can look like an uninterrupted rise to become one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived. But his story is as complicated as it is fascinating.Clapton's god-like skill with a guitar was matched by an almost equal talent for self-destruction. He has never shied away from telling the truth about his battles with drink and drugs - or the sometimes catastrophic impact they had on the other people in his life, including his first wife Pattie Boyd. And without those deep personal lows we may never have had the musical highs that won him millions of fans. His story is also one of a long but successful road to sobriety, redemption and happiness.Motherless Child chronicles Clapton's remarkable journey: the music, the women, the drugs, the cars, the guitars, the heartbreak and the triumphs are all here. The book includes interviews with some people close to Clapton who have never spoken on the record before. It explores his musical legacy as one of the most influential musicians of his generation, and as the keeper of the flame for the blues.
Motherless Child: The Definitive Biography of Eric Clapton
by Paul ScottTimed for release around Clapton's 70th birthday, MOTHERLESS CHILD will be the ultimate celebration and definitive biography of one of the most influential musicians alive today. From the 1960s graffiti proclaiming 'Clapton is God', to his seminal work in supergroup Cream and his phenomenally successful solo career, Eric Clapton has achieved the status of bona fide living legend and enduring icon. Now in his sixth decade in the music business, he occupies an exulted position at the pinnacle of the rock world thanks to songs like Layla, Wonderful Tonight and Tears In Heaven, and for many is considered the greatest guitarist who ever lived. This book will chart his rise to stardom in the 60s and his unparalleled success since walking out of the Yardbirds as a 20-year-old to follow his chosen path of the blues with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and later with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in supergroup Cream, as well as his successful solo career. However, his success has come at a price. Once a happy well-adjusted boy, the young Clapton was devastated by the realisation at the age of nine that the woman he thought was his sister was in fact his mother, and that the couple he thought were his parents were his maternal grandparents. His treatment by his mother was also to shape his future turbulent relationships with the women in his life, including his failed first marriage to model Pattie Boyd, who was married to Clapton's close friend George Harrison when he fell for her. Motherless Child also chronicles his battles with the demons of drugs and alcohol, his successful journey to sobriety, and examines his legacy as one of the most influential musicans of his generation. This is essential reading for any Clapton fan.
Mothers of Invention: Film, Media, and Caregiving Labor (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series)
by Rashna Wadia Richards Claire Perkins Missy Molloy Sara Saljoughi Jules Arita Koostachin Kristi McKim Elinor Cleghorn Susan Berridge Maria Cabrera Corinn Columpar Tamsyn Dent Kristy Guevara-Flanagan Alice Haylett Bryan Irene Lusztig So Mayer Tessa Ashlin Nunn Elissa RashkinMothers of Invention: Film, Media, and Caregiving Laborconstructs a feminist genealogy that foregrounds the relationship between acts of production on the one hand and reproduction on the other. In this interdisciplinary collection, editors So Mayer and Corinn Columpar bring together film and media studies with parenting studies to stake out a field, or at least a conversation, that is thick with historical and theoretical dimension and invested in cultural and methodological plurality. In four sections and sixteen contributions, the manuscript reflects on how caregiving shapes the work of filmmakers, how parenting is portrayed on screen, and how media contributes to radical new forms of care and expansive definitions of mothering. Featuring an exciting array of approaches—including textual analysis, industry studies, ethnographic research, production histories, and personal reflection—Mothers of Invention is a multifaceted collection of feminist work that draws on the methods of both the humanities and the social sciences, as well as the insights borne of both scholarship and lived experience. Grounding this inquiry is analysis of a broad range of texts with global reach—from the films Bashu, The Little Stranger (Bahram Beyzai, 1989), Prevenge (Alice Lowe, 2016), and A Deal with the Universe (Jason Barker, 2018) to the television series Top of the Lake (2013–2017) and Jane the Virgin (2014–2019), among others—as well as discussion of the creative practices, be they related to production, pedagogy, curation, or critique, employed by a wide variety of film and media artists and/or scholars. Mothers of Invention demonstrates how the discourse of parenting and caregiving allows the discipline to expand its discursive frameworks to address, and redress, current theoretical, political, and social debates about the interlinked futures of work and the world. This collection belongs on the bookshelves of students and scholars of cinema and media studies, feminist and queer media studies, labor studies, filmmaking and production, and cultural studies.
Mothers, Comrades, and Outcasts in East German Women's Films (New Directions in National Cinemas)
by Jennifer L. CreechMothers, Comrades, and Outcasts in East German Women's Film merges feminist film theory and cultural history in an investigation of "women's films" that span the last two decades of the former East Germany. Jennifer L. Creech explores the ways in which these films functioned as an alternative public sphere where official ideologies of socialist progress and utopian collectivism could be resisted. Emerging after the infamous cultural freeze of 1965, these women's films reveal a shift from overt political critique to a covert politics located in the intimate, problem-rich experiences of everyday life under socialism. Through an analysis of films that focus on what were perceived as "women's concerns"—marital problems, motherhood, emancipation, and residual patriarchy—Creech argues that the female protagonist served as a crystallization of socialist contradictions. By framing their politics in terms of women's concerns, these films used women's desire and agency to contest the more general problems of social alienation and collectivism, and to re-imagine the possibilities of self-fulfillment under socialism.
Motion Design Toolkit: Principles, Practice, and Techniques
by Austin Shaw John ColetteThis book offers a comprehensive overview of techniques, processes, and professional practices in the area of Motion Design, from fundamental building blocks of organizing time and space in production to managing workflow, budgets, and client relationships. The authors provide insight into the production process from concept through execution in areas as diverse as social media to large-scale projection mapping for events and festivals. Readers will learn through real-world examples, case studies, and interviews how to effectively use their skills in various areas of Motion Design. Industry professionals provide unique perspectives on different areas of Motion Design while showcasing their outstanding and inspiring work throughout. This is a valuable resource to students who aspire to work in a broad range of visual communication disciplines and expand their practice of Motion Design.
Motion Picture Series and Sequels: A Reference Guide (Routledge Library Editions: Cinema)
by Bernard A. DrewIn 1989 alone, for example, there were some forty-five major motion pictures which were sequels or part of a series. The film series phenomenon crosses all genres and has been around since the silent film era. This reference guide, in alphabetical order, lists some 906 English Language motion pictures, from 1899 to 1990, when the book was initially published. A brief plot description is given for each series entry, followed by the individual film titles with corresponding years, directors and performers. Animated pictures, documentaries and concert films are not included but movies released direct to video are.
Motion Picture and Video Lighting
by Blain BrownMotion Picture and Video Lighting, Second Edition, is your indispensable guide to film and video lighting. Written by the author of the industry bible Cinematography, this book explores technical, aesthetic, and practical aspects of lighting for film and video. It will show you not only how to light, but why. Written by a professional in the field, this comprehensive book explores light and color theory; equipment; and techniques to make every scene look its best.Now in full color, Motion Picture and Video Lighting is heavily illustrated with photos and diagrams throughout.This new edition also includes the ultimate 'behind the scenes' DVD that takes you directly on a professional shoot and demonstrates technical procedures and equipment. In addition, 20 video clips include: lighting demonstrations, technical tests, fundamentals of lighting demos, and short scenes illustrating different styles of lighting.
Motion Picture and Video Lighting
by Blain BrownThis fully revised and updated fourth edition of Motion Picture and Video Lighting explores the technical, aesthetic, and practical aspects of lighting for film and video. It covers not only how to light, but also why. The process of lighting is emphasized, as well as practical techniques and visual storytelling with light. Written by experienced filmmaker, film school teacher, and author Blain Brown, this book emphasizes how the image, the mood, and the visual impact of a film are, to a great extent, determined by the skill and sensitivity of the director of photography in using lighting. It provides an indispensable, highly illustrated, and comprehensive guide to making every scene look its best. This new edition has been expanded to provide further guidance at the introductory level for students, those just starting their careers, and people already working in the business who want to move up. Topics include: Lighting Sources LEDs The Lighting Process Lighting Basics Controlling Light Lighting Scenes A Lighting Playbook Storytelling With Light Electricity and Distribution Gripology Set Operations Technical Issues A robust accompanying companion website also includes video tutorials and other resources for students and professionals alike, including lighting demonstrations, basic methods of lighting, using diffusion, color control, and other topics.
Motion Picture and Video Lighting, Second Edition
by Blain BrownMotion Picture and Video Lighting, Second Edition, is the indispensable guide to film and video lighting. This book explores technical, aesthetic, and practical aspects of lighting for film and video, showing you not only how to light, but why. This comprehensive book explores light and color theory, equipment, and techniques to make every scene look its best.
Motion Picture and Video Lighting: For Cinematographers, Gaffers And Lighting Technicians
by Blain BrownLighting is at the heart of filmmaking. The image, the mood, and the visual impact of a film are, to a great extent, determined by the skill and sensitivity of the director of photography in using lighting. Motion Picture and Video Lighting explores technical, aesthetic, and practical aspects of lighting for film and video. It covers not only how to light, but also why. This revised edition of Motion Picture and Video Lighting is the indispensable guide to film and video lighting. Written by an experienced professional, this comprehensive book explores light and color theory, equipment, and techniques to make every scene look its best, and is heavily illustrated throughout. Three new chapters discuss best practices of using light to benefit your film, and an extensive appendix includes discussion on additional tips and tricks. In addition, a robust companion website includes up-to-date video tutorials and other resources for students and professionals alike. Three new chapters: Scene Lighting Lighting as Storytelling Controlling Light Topics include: Lighting sources The lighting process Lighting basics LED, tungsten, Kino-Flo, HMI, and plasma lights Methods of controlling light Planning your lighting The basic methods: a lighting playbook Visual storytelling with light Understanding and controlling color Terminology Electricity and distribution Gripology Set operations The team: DP, gaffer, grips, lighting technicians Technical issues Lighting for greenscreen/bluescreen Typical equipment orders for large and small jobs Lighting for high speed and macro photography Lighting plans for small, medium, and large films
Motion: The Cinema of Stasis (Film and Culture Series)
by Justin RemesConducting the first comprehensive study of films that do not move, Justin Remes challenges the primacy of motion in cinema and tests the theoretical limits of film aesthetics and representation. Reading experimental films such as Andy Warhol's Empire (1964), the Fluxus work Disappearing Music for Face (1965), Michael Snow's So Is This (1982), and Derek Jarman's Blue (1993), he shows how motionless films defiantly showcase the static while collapsing the boundaries between cinema, photography, painting, and literature. Analyzing four categories of static film--furniture films, designed to be viewed partially or distractedly; protracted films, which use extremely slow motion to impress stasis; textual films, which foreground the static display of letters and written words; and monochrome films, which display a field of monochrome color as their image--Remes maps the interrelations between movement, stillness, and duration and their complication of cinema's conventional function and effects. Arguing all films unfold in time, he suggests duration is more fundamental to cinema than motion, initiating fresh inquiries into film's manipulation of temporality, from rigidly structured works to those with more ambiguous and open-ended frameworks. Remes's discussion integrates the writings of Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Tom Gunning, Rudolf Arnheim, Raymond Bellour, and Noel Carroll and will appeal to students of film theory, experimental cinema, intermedia studies, and aesthetics.
Motor City Movie Culture, 1916-1925
by Richard AbelMotor City Movie Culture, 1916–1925 is a broad textured look at Hollywood coming of age in a city with a burgeoning population and complex demographics. Richard Abel investigates the role of local Detroit organizations in producing, distributing, exhibiting, and publicizing films in an effort to make moviegoing part of everyday life. Tapping a wealth of primary source material—from newspapers, spatiotemporal maps, and city directories to rare trade journals, theater programs, and local newsreels—Abel shows how entrepreneurs worked to lure moviegoers from Detroit's diverse ethnic neighborhoods into the theaters. Covering topics such as distribution, programming practices, nonfiction film, and movie coverage in local newspapers, with entr'actes that dive deeper into the roles of key individuals and organizations, this book examines how efforts in regional metropolitan cities like Detroit worked alongside California studios and New York head offices to bolster a mass culture of moviegoing in the United States.
Motor City Movie Culture, 1916–1925
by Richard AbelA study of how the film industry came to flourish in Detroit in the early years as locals were lured into the new picture theaters. Motor City Movie Culture, 1916–1925 is a broad textured look at Hollywood coming of age in a city with a burgeoning population and complex demographics. Richard Abel investigates the role of local Detroit organizations in producing, distributing, exhibiting, and publicizing films in an effort to make moviegoing part of everyday life. Tapping a wealth of primary source material—from newspapers, spatiotemporal maps, and city directories to rare trade journals, theater programs, and local newsreels—Abel shows how entrepreneurs worked to lure moviegoers from Detroit&’s diverse ethnic neighborhoods into the theaters. Covering topics such as distribution, programming practices, nonfiction film, and movie coverage in local newspapers, with entr&’actes that dive deeper into the roles of key individuals and organizations, this book examines how efforts in regional metropolitan cities like Detroit worked alongside California studios and New York head offices to bolster a mass culture of moviegoing in the United States.
Motor City Movie Culture, 1916–1925
by Richard AbelA study of how the film industry came to flourish in Detroit in the early years as locals were lured into the new picture theaters. Motor City Movie Culture, 1916–1925 is a broad textured look at Hollywood coming of age in a city with a burgeoning population and complex demographics. Richard Abel investigates the role of local Detroit organizations in producing, distributing, exhibiting, and publicizing films in an effort to make moviegoing part of everyday life. Tapping a wealth of primary source material—from newspapers, spatiotemporal maps, and city directories to rare trade journals, theater programs, and local newsreels—Abel shows how entrepreneurs worked to lure moviegoers from Detroit&’s diverse ethnic neighborhoods into the theaters. Covering topics such as distribution, programming practices, nonfiction film, and movie coverage in local newspapers, with entr&’actes that dive deeper into the roles of key individuals and organizations, this book examines how efforts in regional metropolitan cities like Detroit worked alongside California studios and New York head offices to bolster a mass culture of moviegoing in the United States.
Motorcycle Enlightenment
by Charles SidesALAN PIERCE-in his forties, divorced, clueless, a bit neurotic, without a job-can't find his way across the street without getting lost, it seems. The only thing Pierce knows for certain is where to find really good pizza on the Ocean City, New Jersey, boardwalk-and that's as far as he gets in his "cross-country motorcycle odyssey" in search of enlightenment. He ditches the idea of traveling to the West Coast (he can't find it), sells his motorcycle (he gets leg cramps), and digs in where he finds himself. As he searches for inner peace and self-understanding, his life becomes a paradoxical study of indirection: he goes by not going, he bikes by selling his bike. Following his "doughnut" wisdom, Alan calms down, relaxes his mind, and learns to meditate, all the while observing himself with the bemused and sometimes startled fascination of an anthropologist. Quirky, clever, and somehow actually instructive, Motorcycle Enlightenment is a stand-up comic's take on adventure along the spiritual path.
Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power
by Gerald PosnerIn 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building's entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted "Hitsville U. S. A. " The kitchen served as the control room, the garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company's name was Motown. Motown cuts through decades of unsubstantiated rumors and speculation to tell the true behind-the-scenes narrative of America's most exciting musical dynasty. It follows the company and its amazing roster of stars from the tumultuous growth years in Detroit, to the drama and intrigue of Hollywood in the 1970s, to resurgence in 2002. Set against the civil rights movement, the decay of America's northern industrial cities, and the social upheaval of the 1960s, Motown is a tale of the incredible entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy. But it also features the moving stories of kids from Detroit's inner-city projects who achieved remarkable success and then, in many cases, found themselves fighting the demons that so often come with stardom--drugs, jealousy, sexual indulgence, greed, and uncontrollable ambition. Motown features an extraordinary cast of characters, including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. They are presented as they lived and worked: a clan of friends, lovers, competitors, and sometimes vicious foes. Motown reveals how the hopes and dreams of each affected the lives of the others and illustrates why this singular story is a made-in-America Greek tragedy, the rise and fall of a supremely talented yet completely dysfunctional extended family. Based on numerous original interviews and extensive documentation, Motown benefits particularly from the thousands of pages of files crammed into the basement of downtown Detroit's Wayne County Courthouse. Those court records provide the unofficial--and hitherto largely untold--history of Motown and its stars, since almost every relationship between departing singers, songwriters, producers, and the label ended up in litigation. From its peaks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Motown controlled the pop charts and its stars were sought after even by the Beatles, through the inexorable slide caused by their failure to handle their stardom, Motown is a riveting and troubling look inside a music label that provided the unofficial soundtrack to an entire generation. From the Hardcover edition.
Motty: Forty Years in the Commentary Box
by John MotsonFrom Ronnie Radford to Wayne Rooney, John Motson's knowledge and passion for football are unrivalled. In Motty, he shares his story for the first time and guides us through a career which has spanned forty years and over 2,000 matches. From reporting on the exploits of the giant-killing Hereford team in the 1972 FA Cup that made his name on Match of the Day, to the estimated twenty-million viewers who tuned in to his commentary on England's match with Portugal at the 2006 World Cup, Motson's time in the commentary box has delivered some unforgettable anecdotes. In dozens of fascinating behind-the-scenes stories, we hear about the greatest football matches he has watched and the greatest players and managers he has been privileged to know. Many of them are football icons; Bill Shankly, Alex Ferguson, Brian Clough, Alf Ramsey, and Matt Busby, amongst countless others.Motty is essential reading for anyone who has grown up with the undisputed voice of football.
Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney's Book of Lists
by McSweeney'sIf a mountain man felt compelled to dance, how would he do it? If koala bears could talk, what would they say? And what's the right pickup line, if you're a necrophiliac? (Maybe "I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get you pregnant.") In the throes of debates like these, we're lucky to have the learned people of McSweeney's Internet Tendency, America's best low-budget humor website, and their edifying work. From their best-looking writers comes this collection of over three hundred lists, including..."Signs Your Unicorn Is Cheating on You.""Errors in Communication Between My Hairdresser and Me, in the Form of What I Said and What He Heard""Things This City Was Built On, Besides Rock 'n' Roll""Things This One Girl Sitting Near Me in a Movie Theater Said Out Loud When One of the Characters Was Shown Pulling Into a Gas Station""Future Winners of the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest""Adjectives Rarely Used by Wine Tasters""The Collected Apologies of Lawrence H. Summers, President of Harvard""Exactly What I Mean When I Say My Ex-Girlfriend Kristin and I 'Wanted Different Things from Life'"And much, much more...
Mountain Solo
by Jeanette IngoldAfter a disastrous concert, a teenage musical prodigy who&’s sick of the stress heads to Montana to figure out her next step . . . From the moment Tess picked up the violin as a child, it was clear she wasn&’t like other kids. She was a prodigy, and at sixteen her life is that of a virtuoso-to-be: constant training, special schools, and a big debut before an audience of thousands. But when she blows her moment in the spotlight, she throws it all away, moves from New York City to join her father and his new family in Montana, and tries to lead a normal life—whatever that is. But she&’s hardly arrived when she is drawn into a mystery: a hunt for the wilderness homestead of a lost pioneer who played violin himself. Maybe, through his story, Tess will figure out how to handle the expectations of others, and what she really wants for herself . . . &“The characters are likeable, and their love of music shines through . . . For anyone fascinated by the power of music and its effects on individuals&’ lives.&” —School Library Journal
Mountain: LIfe Lessons and Learned Truths
by Montel WilliamsBorn in Baltimore's black ghetto, Montel was the youngest of four children in a family that was hardworking but loving. At the suggestion of a family friend, he joined the Marine Corps. There he acquired an education, a sense of direction, and a respect for discipline--values he would never forget. Recognized as a natural leader, Montel was asked to conduct family support groups on base. An electrifying speaker, he was soon talking to auditoriums of teenagers across the nation, traveling at his own expense and learning, on the front lines of this country's toughest neighborhoods, how to spread the civilizing principles of Montel's own three Rs: restraint, responsibility, and respect. In his own inimitable, down-to-earth style, Montel now offers us the hard-hitting yet compassionate advice that has already touched the lives of so many. Based on his three R's, here is sound guidance on the difficult issues of violence, drugs, peer pressure, sex, poverty, and the lure of the streets, as well as their antidotes: education, commitment, self-esteem, and love.
Mourning the Nation: Indian Cinema in the Wake of Partition
by Bhaskar SarkarWhat remains of the "national" when the nation unravels at the birth of the independent state? The political truncation of India at the end of British colonial rule in 1947 led to a social cataclysm in which roughly one million people died and ten to twelve million were displaced. Combining film studies, trauma theory, and South Asian cultural history, Bhaskar Sarkar follows the shifting traces of this event in Indian cinema over the next six decades. He argues that Partition remains a wound in the collective psyche of South Asia and that its representation on screen enables forms of historical engagement that are largely opaque to standard historiography. Sarkar tracks the initial reticence to engage with the trauma of 1947 and the subsequent emergence of a strong Partition discourse, revealing both the silence and the eventual "return of the repressed" as strands of one complex process. Connecting the relative silence of the early decades after Partition to a project of postcolonial nation-building and to trauma's disjunctive temporal structure, Sarkar develops an allegorical reading of the silence as a form of mourning. He relates the proliferation of explicit Partition narratives in films made since the mid-1980s to disillusionment with post-independence achievements, and he discusses how current cinematic memorializations of 1947 are influenced by economic liberalization and the rise of a Hindu-chauvinist nationalism. Traversing Hindi and Bengali commercial cinema, art cinema, and television, Sarkar provides a history of Indian cinema that interrogates the national (a central category organizing cinema studies) and participates in a wider process of mourning the modernist promises of the nation form.