A01=Virginia Wright Wexman
Acting
Actor
Anglo
Author_Virginia Wright Wexman
Broken Blossoms
Category=ATFA
Category=JBCC
Chapter Two (play)
Character (arts)
Christian Dior
Cinema of the United States
Classical Hollywood cinema
Close-up
Courtship
D. W. Griffith
Division of labour
Do the Right Thing
Endogamy
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eq_bestseller
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Fan magazine
Femininity
Film noir
Filmmaking
Gary Cooper
Gender role
Genre
Homoeroticism
Homosexuality
House of Games
Ideology
Improvisation
Incest
Individualism
Individuation
Lauren Bacall
Lifestyle (sociology)
Male bonding
Marlon Brando
Masculinity
Mean Streets
Melodrama
Method acting
Mexicans
Miscegenation
Monogamy
Moscow Art Theatre
Narcissism
Narrative
Nobility
On the Waterfront
Oppression
Patriarchy
Person
Personhood
Philosophy
Playwright
Post-structuralism
Psychoanalysis
Publicity
Role-playing
Sam Spade
Self-actualization
Sex differences in humans
Struggle (TV series)
Suggestion
Sunset Boulevard (musical)
Superiority (short story)
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon (novel)
The Other Hand
War film
Way Down East
Western (genre)
Writing
Product details
- ISBN 9780691015354
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 21 Jun 1993
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Who decides how, when, and where Americans fall in love and get married? Virginia Wexman's acute observations about movie stars and acting techniques show that Hollywood has often had the most powerful voice in demonstrating socially sanctioned ways of becoming a couple. Until now serious film critics have paid little attention to the impact of performance styles on American romance, and have often treated "patriarchy," "sexuality," and the "couple" as monolithic and unproblematic concepts. Wexman, however, shows how these notions have been periodically transformed in close association with the appearance, behavior, and persona of the stars of films such as The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Way Down East, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Sunset Boulevard, On the Waterfront, Nashville, House of Games, and Do the Right Thing. The author focuses first on the way in which traditional marriage norms relate to authorship (the Griffith-Gish collaboration) and genre (John Wayne and the Western). Looking at male and female stardom in terms of the development of "companionate marriage," she discusses the love goddess and the impact of method acting on Hollywood's ideals of maleness.
Finally she considers the recent breakdown of the ideal of monogamous marriage in relation to Hollywood's experimentation with self-reflexive acting styles. Creating the Couple is must reading for film scholars and enthusiasts, and it will fascinate everyone interested in the changing relationships of men and women in modern culture.
Virginia Wright Wexman is Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Among her other books is Roman Polanski (Twayne).
