Film Serials and the American Cinema, 1910-1940

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A01=Ilka Brasch
archival film research
Author_Ilka Brasch
Category=ATF
Category=JBCT
Category=NH
crime fiction adaptation
cross-media storytelling
early twentieth century serials analysis
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
film history
film serials
media history
media modernity
modernity
narrative repetition
seriality
silent era cinema

Product details

  • ISBN 9781041179382
  • Weight: 580g
  • Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
  • Publication Date: 01 Dec 2025
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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Before the advent of television, cinema offered serialized films as a source of weekly entertainment. This book traces the history from the days of silent screen heroines to the sound era's daring adventure serials, unearthing a thriving film culture beyond the self-contained feature. Through extensive archival research, Ilka Brasch details the aesthetic appeals of film serials within their context of marketing and exhibition, looking at how they adapted the pleasures of a flourishing crime fiction culture to both serial visual culture and the affordances of the media-modernity of the early 20th century. The study furthermore traces the relationship of film serials to the broadcast models of radio and television and thereby shows how film serials introduced modes of storytelling that informed popular culture even beyond the serial's demise.

Ilka Brasch is an assistant professor of American Studies at Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany. She was a member of the research unit 'Popular Seriality - Aesthetics and Practice' (Free University Berlin, 2013-2016), and she has presented on film serials at conferences in Germany, the United States, and France. Her most recent article appeared in >Screen>.

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