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The American Family in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

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by Claire Jenkins

Type

Essays

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

family

Publishing date

2015

Publisher

I.B.Tauris

Collection

International Library of the Moving Image

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 224 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-78076-182-4

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Book Presentation:
The American family has long been at the centre of the typical Hollywood narrative. But the depiction of the nuclear family within contemporary mainstream US cinema has not yet been closely studied. Home Movies addresses this oversight by assessing recent cinematic representations of the family in terms of cultural politics and representations of gender, sexuality, race and class. Focusing on a diverse range of popular films - from Meet the Parents to The Incredibles - Claire Jenkins analyses the father-daughter relationship within sequels and series; Meryl Streep's embodiment of the mother; the superhero family and extraordinary manifestations of the ordinary family; disaster films which depict the president as father; 'mom-coms' and Hollywood's representations of the non-traditional family. She combines film studies, gender studies and family history to demonstrate the complexities of Hollywood's family values.

About the Author:
Claire Jenkins is Lecturer in Film and Media Communications at Bath Spa University (UK). She has published work on a number of topics including superhero families, older women in Mamma Mia! and gender and clothing in popular media.

See the publisher website: I.B.Tauris