Overview
- Offers the first sustained exploration of the child in British Cinema
- Explores the way the child in British cinema is deployed as a representative of national sovereignty
- Considers industrial and aesthetic characteristics of British cinema via contemporary and historical case studies
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About this book
This book argues that over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the cinema in Britain became the site on which childhood was projected, examined, and understood. Through an analysis of these projections; via case studies that encompass early cinema, pre and post-war film, and contemporary cinema; this book interprets the child in British cinema as a device through which to reflect upon issues of national culture, race, empire, class, and gender. Beginning with a discussion of early cinematic depictions of the child in Britain, this book examines cultural expressions of nationhood produced via non-commercial cinemas for children. It considers the way cinema encroaches on the moral edification of the child and the ostensible vibrancy and vitality of the British boy in post-war cinema. The author explores the representational and instrumental differences between depictions of boys and girls before extending this discussion to investigate the treatment of migrant, refugee, and immigrant children in British cinema. It ends by recapitulating these arguments through a discussion of internationally successful British blockbuster cinema. The child in this study is a mobile figure, deployed across generic boundaries, throughout the history of British cinema and embodying a range of discourses regarding the health and wellbeing of the nation.
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Keywords
Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Matthew Smith is a Film Studies scholar based in North West England. He has previously worked at the University of Liverpool, UK, and the University of Lancaster, UK, from which he received his PhD.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Child in British Cinema
Authors: Matthew Smith
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05969-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-05968-1Published: 23 July 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-05971-1Published: 23 July 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-05969-8Published: 22 July 2022
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 220
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations, 8 illustrations in colour
Topics: British Cinema and TV, Media and Communication, Close Reading