Tamar Jeffers McDonald – författare

This is a critical and in-depth investigation of how virginity is represented in film. In ""Virgin Territory"" contributors consider virginity as it is produced and marketed in film. With chapters that span a range of periods, genres, and performances, this collection proves that although it seems like an obvious quality at first glance, virginity in film is anything but simple. The essays in ""Virgin Territory"" destabilize assumptions about virginity and connect moments of virginity in film to their larger social significance. Editor Tamar Jeffers McDonald has assembled a range of contributions by noted film scholars to consider virginity from numerous perspectives, including both the male and female quest to lose virginity, the role of virginity in horror film, issues of sexual agency and desire in both historic and contemporary depictions of virginity, and the complications of self-pleasure and masturbation. Films considered include classics of the Production Code era, like ""Marjorie Morningstar"", ""Pillow Talk"", and ""Bonjour Tristesse"", as well as more recent films like ""Porky's"", ""Losin' It"", ""Fast Times at Ridgemont High"", ""American Pie"", ""The 40-Year-Old Virgin"", and ""Scary Movie"". Contributors also consider particular stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day to investigate the positioning of virginity on an actor's physical body. Across different eras and genres, different films have different methods of representing virginity, relying on costume, mise-en-scene, and performance to convey the virgin status, while some film stars are associated with the quality to both the furtherance, and the frustration, of their careers. ""Virgin Territory"" explores the contrasts and continuities in films' attempts at representing this internal state to fascinating effect. Scholars of film and television history as well as cultural studies will enjoy this significant volume.

Gothic Heroines on Screen explores the translation of the literary Gothic heroine on screen, the potential consequences of these adaptations, and contemporary interpretations of the form.Each chapter illuminates the significance of this moving image mediation, relating its screen topics to their various historical, social, and geographical moments of production, while maintaining a focus on the key figure of the investigating woman. Many chapters – perhaps inescapably – delve into the point of adaptation: the Bluebeard story and du Maurier’s Rebecca as two key examples. Moving beyond the Old Dark House that frequently forms both the Gothic heroine’s backdrop and her area of investigation, some chapters examine alternative locations and their impact on the Gothic heroine, some leave behind the marital thriller to explore what happens when the Gothic meets other genres, such as comedy, while others travel away from the usual Anglo-American contexts to European ones.Throughout the collection, the Gothic heroine’s representation is explored within the medium, which brings together image, movement, and sound, and this technological fact takes on varied significance. What does remain constant, however, is the emphasis on the longevity, significance, and distinctiveness of the Gothic heroine in screen culture.

Gothic Heroines on Screen explores the translation of the literary Gothic heroine on screen, the potential consequences of these adaptations, and contemporary interpretations of the form.Each chapter illuminates the significance of this moving image mediation, relating its screen topics to their various historical, social, and geographical moments of production, while maintaining a focus on the key figure of the investigating woman. Many chapters – perhaps inescapably – delve into the point of adaptation: the Bluebeard story and du Maurier’s Rebecca as two key examples. Moving beyond the Old Dark House that frequently forms both the Gothic heroine’s backdrop and her area of investigation, some chapters examine alternative locations and their impact on the Gothic heroine, some leave behind the marital thriller to explore what happens when the Gothic meets other genres, such as comedy, while others travel away from the usual Anglo-American contexts to European ones.Throughout the collection, the Gothic heroine’s representation is explored within the medium, which brings together image, movement, and sound, and this technological fact takes on varied significance. What does remain constant, however, is the emphasis on the longevity, significance, and distinctiveness of the Gothic heroine in screen culture.

Doris Day was a major star during the 1950s and 60s. Even now, many years after her final film and years since her last regular television appearances, the star's name retains currency: she is often invoked as shorthand for a kind of sexuality now felt outmoded, with virginity firmly maintained until marriage. Although this assumption is widespread, close attention to the facts of Day's own life challenges it, and the majority of her film roles also prove otherwise, with Day most frequently portraying a woman of maturely sexual desires. Redressing a surprisingly meagre body of work on Doris Day, this book investigates why the rigid view of Day's maintained virginity should have arisen and become so fixed to the star, even now. Taking a twofold approach, Tamar Jeffers McDonald both closely examines Day's film roles and performances and explores material from other popular media for the source of the virgin myth. Day featured continuously in public discourse, and media stories were often devoted to her personal life: it was widely known that she had been married three times and had a son.Why then did the pejorative label, 'the-forty-year-old virgin', arise, and why has it stuck so tenaciously to Day until today? Investigating a range of sources in order to discover why this maturely sexual star has become indelibly associated with maintained virginity, Doris Day Confidential analyses in detail Day's characters and performances across her career. By focusing on contemporary popular culture contexts, using newspaper stories, articles from film, fan and lifestyle magazines, reviews and gossip, it charts the developments in Day's screen 'persona', highlighting the changing public perception of the star of Calamity Jane, Love Me Or Leave Me and Pillow Talk, as aided and abetted by the media.

Thirteen original chapters on movie magazines analysing their visual aspectsContents include sections on individual issues, regular features, and adjunct publicationsAs well as visuals, topics covered include stardom, gender, censorship, nationality, performance, languageIncludes detailed studies of magazines from the US, UK, France, Chile, and PolandStars, Fan Magazines and Audiences focuses on movie magazines, publications first produced in 1911 for movie fans in the United States, but soon reaching movie fans on a global scale. Bringing together scholars from different disciplinary and international contexts, this collection considers fan magazines as objects of material and visual history.The designer's toolkit aided movie magazines in seducing their readers, with visual elements, such as fonts, photographs, and illustrations, plied across both editorial content and advertisements. In this way, each issue was subtly designed to stir desire in readers and moviegoers alike. By focusing on the visual aspects of fan magazines, a key pleasure for readers, this collection provides detailed examples of how visual elements engendered aspiration and longing, thus putting the visual contents of the fan magazines at the heart of every chapter.

Stars, Fan Magazines and Audiences focuses on movie magazines, publications first produced in 1911 for movie fans in the United States, but soon reaching movie fans on a global scale. Bringing together scholars from different disciplinary and international contexts, this collection considers fan magazines as objects of material and visual history. The designer's toolkit aided movie magazines in seducing their readers, with visual elements, such as fonts, photographs, and illustrations, plied across both editorial content and advertisements. In this way, each issue was subtly designed to stir desire in readers and moviegoers alike. By focusing on the visual aspects of fan magazines, a key pleasure for readers, this collection provides detailed examples of how visual elements engendered aspiration and longing, thus putting the visual contents of the fan magazines at the heart of every chapter.

Groundbreaking in its departure from its predecessors, When Harry Met Sally… (1989) established classic romantic comedy themes and tropes still being employed today. Following the relationship between its title characters, Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan), and their best friends Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher), the film unfolds as a series of episodes, from Harry and Sally's prickly car journey from Chicago to New York City to a momentous encounter on New Year's Eve twelve years later. Tamar Jeffers McDonald's insightful study explores how writer Nora Ephron and director Rob Reiner used structure, filmic devices, music and classic romcom concepts in innovative new ways. In her afterword to this new edition, she reflects on the movie's continuing influence on the romcom genre, and its relevance in a more turbulent era, where the question at the movie's heart - "Can men and women ever just be friends?" takes on fresh nuance in the age of #MeToo.

Ground-breaking in its departure from its predecessors, When Harry Met Sally (1989) established classic romantic comedy themes and tropes still being employed today. Placing the film in its historical, social and generic contexts, Tamar Jeffers-McDonald explores how writer Nora Ephron and director Rob Reiner used structure, filmic devices, music and classic romcom concepts in innovative new ways. In her fresh and timely appraisal of this definitive, much-loved classic, Jeffers McDonald reflects on the film's enduring legacy and influence on popular culture to give readers a wider perspective on the continuing evolution and importance of the romcom genre.