Keyframes introduces the study of popular cinema of Hollywood and beyond and responds to the transformative effect of cultural studies on film studies.
The contributors rethink contemporary film culture using ideas and concerns from feminism, queer theory, 'race' studies, critiques of nationalism, colonialism and post-colonialism, the cultural economies of fandom, spectator theory, and Marxism. Combining a film studies focus on the film industry, production and technology with a cultural studies analysis of consumption and audiences, Keframes demonstrates the breadth of...

Keyframes introduces the study of popular cinema of Hollywood and beyond and responds to the transformative effect of cultural studies on film studies.
The contributors rethink contemporary film culture using ideas and concerns from feminism, queer theory, 'race' studies, critiques of nationalism, colonialism and post-colonialism, the cultural economies of fandom, spectator theory, and Marxism. Combining a film studies focus on the film industry, production and technology with a cultural studies analysis of consumption and audiences, Keframes demonstrates the breadth of...

A theory-driven study of the invisibility of lesbians in post-WW2 American culture.

With hair slicked back and shirt collar framing her young patrician face, Katherine Hepburn's image in the 1935 film "Sylvia Scarlett" was seen by many as a lesbian representation. Yet, Amy Villarejo argues, there is no final ground upon which to explain why that image of Hepburn signifies lesbian or why such a cross-dressing Hollywood fantasy edges into collective consciousness as a lesbian narrative. Investigating what allows viewers to perceive an image or narrative as "lesbian," Villarejo presents a theoretical exploration of lesbian visibility. Focusing on images of lesbians in film, she...

In "Ethereal Queer," Amy Villarejo offers a historically engaged, theoretically sophisticated, and often personal account of how TV representations of queer life have changed as the medium has evolved since the 1950s. Challenging the widespread view that LGBT characters did not make a sustained appearance on television until the 1980s, she draws on innovative readings of TV shows and network archives to reveal queer television s lengthy, rich, and varied history. Villarejo goes beyond concerns about representational accuracy. She tracks how changing depictions of queer life, in programs from...

In "Ethereal Queer," Amy Villarejo offers a historically engaged, theoretically sophisticated, and often personal account of how TV representations of queer life have changed as the medium has evolved since the 1950s. Challenging the widespread view that LGBT characters did not make a sustained appearance on television until the 1980s, she draws on innovative readings of TV shows and network archives to reveal queer television s lengthy, rich, and varied history. Villarejo goes beyond concerns about representational accuracy. She tracks how changing depictions of queer life, in programs from...