Silent Film and the Triumph of the American Myth

by Paula Marantz Cohen

Book Overview

Silent Film and the Triumph of the American Myth connects the rise of film and the rise of America as a cultural center and twentieth-century world power. Silent film, Paula Cohen reveals, allowed America to sever its literary and linguistic ties to Europe and answer the call by nineteenth-century writers like Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman for an original form of expression compatible with American strengths and weaknesses. When film finally began...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019514094X
• ISBN13: 9780195140941
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great read for anyone interested in media and visual culture

This surprisingly profound book provides significant insight into the history of silent film in the United States and how the primary building blocks of body, landscape and face came to be combined in film to put forth both conscious and subconscious ideals of American culture. The author uses excellent examples from U.S. film history and provides provocative food for thought throughout the book. The chapters are organized thematically very well and grant pleasure on first read, yet this book bears careful and repeated reading to glean maximum meaning. Anyone interested in how myth is promulgated through film and how the film medium as it developed in the United States was particularly suited to carry forth uniquely American ideals will find this book a good read. In addition, any reader who wants insight into how American visual culture came to dominate world media, for good or ill, will also gain value from this book.