Hollywood Comedians, The Film Reader brings together key writings on one of the most consistently popular genres of Hollywood cinema. Despite the cult reputations enjoyed by star performers such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers and Woody Allen, comedians and the contexts within which they worked have not always received their due in scholarly discussions of cinema culture. Hollywood Comedians, The Film Reader seeks to fill this gap, combining distinguished work on comedian comedy produced since the early 1980s together with more recent material that...

This fascinating study explores how our prehistoric ancestors developed rituals from everyday life and domestic activities. Richard Bradley contends that for much of the prehistoric period, ritual was not a distinct sphere of activity. Rather it was the way in which different features of the domestic world were played out until they took on qualities of theatrical performance.

With extensive illustrated case-studies, this book examines farming, craft production and the occupation of houses, all of which were ritualized in prehistoric Europe. Successive chapters discuss the ways in which...