Recent films in the James Bond series and the Hunger Games series have taken entertaining and sentimental versions of stories about violence in the struggle between the established state and rebels against the state. The craft of the moviemaker lends heroic stature to one side in this fight, thus justifying the use of violence. In these movies,…

Films of the "perestroika" period (1986-1991) related to school/university theme showed that: - the educational / upbringing process has lost the previous strict storylines and in many respects has lost its communist landmarks;--both school and university have acute problem areas (crisis, disappointment and fatigue, professional…

Implementation of digital literacies in secondary literature study can result in increased textual engagement and explorations of identity. The author describes the results of practitioner research at a Midwestern U.S. high school in which senior AP students created short films as a way to analyze literature circle texts. The purpose of the study…

The film, "I, Daniel Blake", has received critical acclaim for its portrayal of the experiences of those attempting to navigate the bureaucracy of the British welfare state system. In this article, I use the depiction of literacy in the film as a lens through which I examine both the role of literacy in compounding the challenge for…

The paper presents findings from a reader response study conducted in February 2013 with 150 children aged 7-11 in which they discussed extracts and clips from Roald Dahl's "Matilda" (1988) and its cinematic adaptation (1996). Dahl and "Matilda" were chosen because they provoke emphatic responses from adults, often commenting…

This article compares the models of subjectivity and identity in William Steig's 1990 picture book "Shrek!" and in DreamWorks' "Shrek" films. Steig presented his ogre hero as a model of the crises of subjectivity all children must face, and then reassured readers by showing how even a hideous figure such as…

The purpose of this study is to analyze the behavior of a character, Celie, in a movie, 'The Color Purple," through the lens of two adult learning theorists to determine the relationships the character has with each theory. The development and portrayal of characters in movies can be explained and understood by the analysis of adult learning…

Teaching literary theory is fascinating for those who love the application of theory to a literary text, difficult for those who are of the opinion that theory destroys the actual beauty and value of the fictional source, and unfortunately often boring for those who are taught. This article, however, provides a popular approach to the introduction…

One reason zombie films are so frightening, and perhaps so popular, is because zombies represent a unique type of monster. Rather than frightening people because they are so alien to the world as people understand it, zombies are horrifying in how closely they resemble people. Zombies are people and represent the potential of zombie…

Aristotle's "Rhetoric" offers a model for applying the concept of the enthymeme to the work of film scholars to understand the role of the audience. Used from an analytic perspective, enthymemes emphasize audience reaction to a film, with the focus on how the film is seen, not on how it was made. Applying viewing skills to a sample of…

Contributes to scholarship on film and feminism by showing how James Whale's film attempts to excise or severely delimit the disturbing critique of the Romantic politics of gender in Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein." Discusses parthenogenesis, showing how the novel critiques the Romantic rhetorical reconstructions of masculine…

Using great literature to clarify and to improve students' writing is like using the unknown-literature to explain the only slightly less unknown--the writing of compositions. An alternative is to study films to foster an awareness of technique, for films contain many of the same rhetorical and structural devices as literature. It is possible to…

Investigates the issue of misogyny in Roald Dahl's 1983 book and Nicolas Roeg's 1989 film, "The Witches." Looks at the general differences in the two texts--the most explicit difference is in the film's ending. Explores the significance of the witch in the book and to what extent Roeg's film uses the implied connection between evil and gender. (PA)

Presents the text of an interview with Andrew Sarris discussing film criticism and critics and possible futures for the film. (TO)

Raises issues involved in the study and teaching of narrative, with reference to both literature and film. Considers the function of realism in narrative fiction and the teaching of theory and practice of those writers and filmmakers who have challenged the realist text by alternative strategies. (JMF)