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open access

"Reality" while Dreaming in a Labyrinth: Christopher Nolan as Realist Auteur

Description: This thesis examines how the concept of an auteur (author of a film) has developed within contemporary Hollywood and popular culture. Building on concepts from Timothy Corrigan, this thesis adapts the ideas of the author and the commercial auteur to examine how director Christopher Nolan's name, and film work, has become branded as "realist" by the Hollywood film industry and by Nolan's consistent self-promotion. Through recurring signatures of "realism," such as, cinematic realism (immersive f… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Cowley, Brent
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

It's All Coming Back to You: 1980s Retro Film Culture and the Masculinity of Cult

Description: The 1980s is a formative decade in American history. America sought to reestablish itself as a global power and to reassert the dominant ideology of white, patriarchal capitalism. Likewise, media producers in the 1980s sought to reassert the dominance of the white, male, muscled body in filmic representations. The identity politics of the 1980s and the depictions of the white, muscled body once prominent in the 1980s have been the site of conservative nostalgia for a young, male-dominated, cult… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Collins, Ryan William
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Chronicle of the Online Culture Wars: Reactionary Affective Publics in Neoliberal Postmodernity

Description: The Age of Trump witnessed the visible rise of intense culture wars and polarization in the United States. While culture wars are not new phenomena, the current iteration has digital media acting as new discursive structures and mediating battlegrounds for all sides of the cultural conflict. This project chronicles these online culture wars, demonstrating how within a neoliberal and postmodern socio-cultural condition, the rise of ambivalent, profit-driven digital technologies and platforms str… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Montalvo, David Rafael
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Nine Lives: A History of Cat Women, Subversive Femininity, and Transgressive Archetypes in Film

Description: The intention of this thesis is to identify and analyze the cat woman archetype as a contemporary extension of the transgressive witch archetype, which rampantly appears over the course of cinema history, working as a signifier of a patriarchal society's fear of autonomous and subversive women. The character of Catwoman is the ultimate representation for this archetype on grounds of her visibility, longevity, and ability to return again and again. More importantly, Catwoman and her sisterhood o… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Barnett, Katrina
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Let's Bump Up the Lights: Exploring The Carol Burnett Show as a Cultural Antecedent to Feminist Media Studies

Description: This thesis argues that textual and historical analysis of The Carol Burnett Show reveals that the program utilized slapstick, women's comedy and feminist humor to create comedic parodies of television commercials, melodramas and women's films, and soap operas. Their television commercial parodies reflect Second Wave feminist critiques of media advertising contemporary with the program. Comparison of the work of early feminist film theorists and media critics to the program's parodies of film a… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Hoover, Jessica
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Netflix Strategy in France: Local Language Productions, Teen Audiences, and Instagram Marketing

Description: The relationship between France and Hollywood is rooted in a deep history that dates to the late 1800s. French Cultural elites and policymakers have regulated Hollywood to prevent the American ideals that are depicted in Hollywood movies from infringing on French culture, restricting free trade distribution practices to limit audiences' accessibility of imported, non-French media. These import regulations have strengthened French exceptionalism, which is an ideal that recognizes France as being… more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Kite, Rachel
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

What Does It Mean to Go Super Saiyan: Gender Identity and Fandom in the Toonami Release of Dragon Ball Z (1998-2003)

Description: The intention of this thesis is to analyze the representations of masculinity in the anime series Dragon Ball Z as it aired on Cartoon Network's programming block Toonami, specifically the nature in which they were framed and how oppositional interpretations in the fandom became prevalent as a result. The series emphasizes the evolution of its central characters Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan into performing a sensitive masculinity, but there are a prevalence of images in the series that discredit thi… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Liverett, Nicholas
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Views from the Beach: Spectator Positions and the American International Pictures Beach Party Films

Description: The American International Pictures (AIP) Beach Party Films were a major American cultural phenomenon in the early 1960s and continue to play a significant role in the American cultural imagination. The AIP Beach Party Films, despite their popularity and influence, have been largely ignored by academia and a thorough academic examination has yet to be written. This thesis attempts to change such an academic precedent. At first glance, the Beach Party Films are frivolous and chaotic (perhaps exp… more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Leavy, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries
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