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Deconstructing Dirty Dancing
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Book Presentation:
Renowned film critic Roger Ebert said Dirty Dancing "might have been a decent movie if it had allowed itself to be about anything." In this broadly researched and accessible text, Stephen Lee Naish sets out to deconstruct and unlock a film that has haunted him for decades, and argues that Dirty Dancing, the 1987 sleeper hit about a young middle-class girl who falls for a handsome working-class dance instructor, is actually about everything. The film is a union of history, politics, sixties and eighties culture, era-defining music, class, gender, and race, and of course features one of the best love stories set to film. Using scene-by-scene analyses, personal interpretation, and comparative study, it's time to take Dirty Dancing out of the corner and place it under the microscope.
About the Author:
Stephen Lee Naish‘s writing explores film, politics, and popular culture. His essays have appeared in Candid Magazine, The Quietus, Empty Mirror, 3:AM, and The Hong Kong Review of Books. He is the author of the essay collection U.ESS.AY: Politics and Humanity in American Film (Zer0 Books) and the forthcoming book Create or Die: Essays on the Artistry of Dennis Hopper (Amsterdam University Press). He lives in Kingston, Ontario.
Press Reviews:
This is a remarkable achievement. Using a single film as a case-study, it asks the reader to re-think their own relationship to cinema, calling into question the narratives, memories and assumptions we construct through and about popular culture. This unique and innovative analysis offers a great deal to any reader, from the film studies professor to the occasional cinema goer. A must-read book or anyone interested in popular film. -- Alfie Brown, University of Manchester and Editor at Everyday Analysis
Dirty Dancing has quietly evolved from a film to enjoy, to one you can admire -- helped along by Stephen Lee Naish's Deconstructing Dirty Dancing. A model of detailed textual analysis, Deconstructing Dirty Dancing reveals what Dirty Dancing's devoted fanbase has known for years: that the film tackled sophisticated, progressive themes with dignity, courage, and a catchy soundtrack. Rest assured, the political can indeed be pleasurable -- Liza Palmer, Managing Editor of The Moving Image, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Film Matters, Contributing Editor of Film International
See the publisher website: Zer0 Books
See Dirty Dancing (1987) on IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Music and Sound in the Films of Dennis Hopper (2024)
Subject: Director > Dennis Hopper
> On a related topic:
The Dirty Dancing Cookbook (2025)
Dishes and Drinks from Kellerman's Mountain House
by Zee Chang and Lisa Kingsley
Subject: One Film > Dirty Dancing
The Time of Our Lives (2013)
Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture
Dir. Siân Lincoln and Yannis Tzioumakis
Subject: One Film > Dirty Dancing
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