The International Film Musical - (Traditions in World Cinema) by Corey K Creekmur & Linda Y Mokdad (Paperback)

About the Book

A unique study of the film musical, a global cinema tradition.

Book Synopsis

This is the first comparative consideration of the musical's role within national cinema traditions. While the musical is one cinema's few genuinely international genres, it has often functioned as an explicitly local or national form, drawing upon distinct traditions understood as 'native' rather than 'international'. Simultaneously, musicals from around the world have often imitated Hollywood models, resulting in their easy dismissal as culturally 'impure' and demonstrating the creative and ideological tension between promoting and abandoning traditional cultural forms and styles. This productive tension between local and global elements lies at the heart of international film musicals, which typically acknowledge the dominant Hollywood model while claiming their own cultural specificity. Key Features* Individual chapters provide succinct historical and critical discussions of musicals from sixteen major national film traditions, along with the transnational musical.* A coda by Rick Altman, one of the genre's most prominent scholars.* Lists of key resources offer teachers as well as students additional information.

From the Back Cover

APPROVED BY THE EDITORS

Traditions in World Cinema

General Editors: Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer

Founding Editor: Steven Jay Schneider

This series introduces diverse and fascinating movements in world cinema. Each volume concentrates on a set of films from a different national, regional or, in some cases, cross-cultural cinema which constitute a particular tradition.

The International Film Musical

Editors: Corey K. Creekmur and Linda Y. Mokdad

ENDORSEMENTS 'This groundbreaking new anthology proves once and for all that Hollywood is not synonymous with film musicals. From Brazil to the UK, Russia to India, these lively essays reconsider what "musicals" are or can be made to be. A refreshing and most welcome addition to the new scholarship on musicals.' Caryl Flinn, Professor of Screen Arts and Cultures, University of Michigan The musical is not only one of Hollywood's best-known forms, but one of cinema's few genuinely international genres. Yet the film musical in world cinema remains largely unknown outside the local or regional contexts in which it has often thrived. The International Film Musical is the first comparative consideration of the musical's role within national cinema traditions. The musical has often functioned as an explicitly local or national form, drawing upon distinct 'native' rather than 'international' traditions. At the same time, it has frequently imitated or been influenced by Hollywood models, resulting in its easy dismissal as culturally 'impure'. As this book emphasises, film musicals vividly demonstrate the creative and ideological tension between promoting and abandoning traditional cultural forms and styles. This dynamic between local and global elements is at the heart of international film musicals, acknowledging the dominant Hollywood model while claiming their own cultural specificity.

Key Features

• * Individual chapters provide succinct historical and critical discussions of musicals from sixteen major national film traditions, along with the transnational musical.
• * A coda by Rick Altman, one of the genre's most prominent scholars.

Corey K. Creekmur is Associate Professor in the Departments of English and Cinema & Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa.

Linda Y. Mokdad teaches film studies at the University of Iceland.

About the Author

Corey K. Creekmur is Associate Professor in the Departments of English and Cinema & Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa, where he also directs the Institute for Cinema and Culture. He is the author of Cattle Queens and Lonesome Cowboys: Gender and Sexuality in the Western (Duke UP, forthcoming) and the author of numerous essays on film music and popular Hindi cinema.

Linda Y. Mokdad is Visiting Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. She works on Hollywood and Arab cinemas, and has most recently completed an essay on the films of Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman (Wallflower Press, forthcoming).