American Cinema/American Culture ISE

PART 1 THE MODE OF PRODUCTION 
• CHAPTER 1 THE EMERGENCE OF THE CINEMA AS AN INSTITUTION
• CHAPTER 2 CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA: NARRATION 
• CHAPTER 3 CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA: STYLE
• CHAPTER 4 THE STUDIO SYSTEM 
• CHAPTER 5 THE STAR SYSTEM 

PART 2 GENRE AND THE GENRE SYSTEM 
• CHAPTER 6 SILENT FILM MELODRAMA
• CHAPTER 7 THE MUSICAL 
• CHAPTER 8 AMERICAN COMEDY 
• CHAPTER 9 WAR AND CINEMA 
• CHAPTER 10 FILM NOIR: SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT 
• CHAPTER 11 THE MAKING OF THE WEST 
• CHAPTER 12 HORROR AND SCIENCE FICTION 

PART 3 A POSTWAR HISTORY
• CHAPTER 13 HOLLYWOOD AND THE COLD WAR 
• CHAPTER 14 HOLLYWOOD IN THE AGE OF TELEVISION 
• CHAPTER 15 THE 1960S: THE COUNTERCULTURE STRIKES BACK 
• CHAPTER 16 THE FILM SCHOOL GENERATION 
• CHAPTER 17 INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 
• CHAPTER 18   DIGITAL CINEMA

American Cinema/American Culture introduces the reader to basic issues related to the phenomenon of American cinema. It looks at American film history from the 1890s through today, but it does not always explore this history in a purely chronological way. In fact, it is not (strictly speaking) a history. Rather, it is a cultural history, which focuses more on topics and issues than on what happened when. American Cinema/American Culture plays a crucial role in the process of identity-formation. Films not only serve as texts that document who we think we are or were, but they also reflect changes in our self-image, tracing the transformation from one kind of America to another.