Читать книгу America on Film - Sean Griffin - Страница 13

The purpose of this book is to analyze how American films have represented race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability throughout the twentieth century and into the early twenty‐first. It is a basic principle of this work that by studying American film history, we can gain keen insights into the ways that different groups of American people have been treated (and continue to be treated). Images of people on film actively contribute to the ways in which people are understood and experienced in the “real world.” As seminal cultural theorist Richard Dyer has asserted, “Images Matter.” Furthermore, there are multiple and varied connections between film and “real life,” and we need to have agreed‐upon ways of discussing those connections and their ramifications. Therefore, before examining in detail how specific groups of people have been represented within American cinema, we need to understand some preliminary concepts: how film works to represent people and things, how and why social groupings are and have been formed, and how individuals interact with the larger socio‐cultural structures of the United States of America. This chapter introduces some basic ideas about film form, American history, and cultural studies.