This week has been the most difficult week in terms of researching my topical area. I decided at the end of last week that I was going to focus more on the Epic as a genre as opposed to feminism in the epic genre. Although I want feminism in the epic genre to be the basis of my dissertation question I needed to understand the epic genre as a whole first before I began to apply feminist film theory, but attempting to research the epic genre in depth has proved difficult. I still have two outstanding book orders that specialise on the Hollywood epic genre that still have not arrived plus it took me eight hours to find three online journals that were case specific enough for further analysis. Each of the journals is over forty pages of theory and this is where I am encountering my problems, the research into the genre is incredibly time consuming, so much so that I have only managed to read half way through one of the journals as I have been note taking and expanding on the quotations as the theorists use very complex sentence structures and difficult terminology. The journal that has taken up so much of my time is entitled "Surge and Splendor": A Phenomenology of the Hollywood Historical Epic by Vivian Sobchack its contents is hard going and sometimes hard to understand but Sobchack highlights the essential facts of the epic genre and why it was so popular back in its heyday, she criticises theorists and historians that suggest that the historical epic is lacking due to its inaccuracy in presenting the correct historical facts but Vivian argues that the genre is merely a way of Hollywood film companies testing new technological advancements and appealing to American Middle class audiences that enjoy the splendour of the genre as opposed to caring about the accuracy of historical facts. Although this journal doesn’t focus on women I have found this source to be useful so far in understanding the genre’s appeal and purpose within the Hollywood filmmaking system. I am hoping to come across more journals and books that focus on isolated occurrences within the genre such as the representation of women, historical, social and political meaning within the genre and so I will keep researching and hopefully I will find more readings that cover my particular spectrum of choice as opposed to just and opinionated overview of the genre.
However I have decided to expand and look further into the idea of just focusing on Roman epics so I have ordered Cleopatra which was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz circa 1963, as I think it would be a good film to perform textual analysis on, as the film is a Hollywood epic set during the Roman reign but also its narrative primarily focuses on a female lead character which can only further my knowledge of feminism and the positioning of women within the classical period of the epic genre. Also I need to have plenty of film references within my dissertation as I want my studies to be based on textual analysis, so that my research and analysis tie in together to further reinforce any arguments or debates I may present in my dissertation. So for the week ahead I shall focus and dedicate more time to research and read journals and articles and hopefully the outstanding books I have ordered should arrive helping me gage a deeper understanding of my subject area. If my research goes well next week I’m hoping to be in the position to start piecing together my dissertation question and coming up with dissertation question ideas.
Bibliography
Sobchack, V , 1990. "Surge and Splendor": A Phenomenology of the Hollywood Historical Epic , [online] Available at:<http://www.Jstor.org/stable/2928417> [Accessed 19 October 2010].
Filmography
Cleopatra, 1963. Film. Directed by Joseph L. MANKIEWICZ. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
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