As a Japanese cultural genre, animated works for girls serve as sociocultural texts which articulate hegemonic social norms and ideologies regarding gender in Japanese society. This thesis aims to critically examine representations of 'magical girl' protagonists in Jpanese Magical Girl TV animation programmes (anime) for girls from 1966 to 2003, and to analyse female audiences' viewing experiences and understanding of those programmes in relation to the context of sociocultural and feminist movements in Japan. By using a combined methodology of close textual analysis of six Magical Girl TV anime and of qualitative research, in which individual interviews with female audiences and a focus group discussion among girl audiences were conducted, this thesis explores how representations of Western-oriented witches and witchcraft in the Magical Girl TV anime facilitated constructions of female gender identity and idealised 'self' and how actual female audiences in three different age cohorts understood, took pleasure in, consumed, negotiated, resonated with and/or reconciled with those representations. Although Japanese witch animation texts articulated Japanese normative moral values and hegemonic femininity as well as ideal gender equality, they served as sites in which female audiences took pleasure in constructing an ideal 'self' and self-assertion through negotiating, resonating and reconciling with Western-oriented fashionable female protagonists and their lifestyle, and attaining self-expression through 'textual poaching' or exercising imagined magical transformations in an all-female or solitary environment. This thesis attempts to contribute to uncovering little-explored but important Japanese cultural texts of Magical Girl TV anime and explicate the way in which actual Japanese audiences responded to this gender-segregated genre of Japanese TV anime.

The relationship between television institutions and film in Britain has a complex history, influenced by profound changes in both industries over time. The involvement of public service broadcasters (PSBs) in British cinema has been a regularly-acknowledged, but under-examined phenomenon. There is a dearth of up-to-date scholarship dealing with the relationship, particularly as it unfolded over the turbulent decades of the 1990s and 2000s. This thesis updates and expands the existing field on the relationship between British television and film cultures. It does so by examining the ways in which PSBs have been involved in film culture, as producers, distributors and exhibitors. It also discusses the significant changes to this relationship wrought by the coming into dominance of digital technologies, and the responses of the PSBs to digitalisation. The body of the thesis is separated into two parts. Part One examines the relationship between television and film at the end of the analogue era, ending roughly in 2002. The first chapter explores the historical background to television films in Britain, discussing the semantic turn from describing single dramas shown on television as ‘plays’ and ‘films’. The second chapter outlines three case studies which explore the relationship between television and distribution. The third chapter discusses the industrial relationship between film and television, and the distinct discourses of ‘quality’ applied to each form. The second part of the thesis discusses the effects of digital technologies on the PSB’s role as producer, distributor and exhibitor of films. Chapter Four explores the position of the PSB as patron of low-budget, digital production schemes. In Chapter Five, the opening night and subsequent decade of broadcasting on the FilmFour digital television channel is analysed. Chapter Six takes as its subject the online film output of the BBC, particularly via its iPlayer platform, and its short film distribution network, the BBC Film Network.

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This thesis uses a range of recent television and film texts to interrogate postfeminist media formations of masculinity. In particular, this work focuses on increasingly prevalent media narratives that are about producing men as suitable romantic partners for postfeminist women. Arguing that existing literature on postfeminism ignores or trivialises the issue of masculinity, this thesis addresses new cultural formations of masculinity that are linked not only to postfeminist discourse, but also related cultural and economic shifts such as post-industrialisation and the rise of neo-liberal cultural politics. Analysing texts from the mid-1990s to 2012, the work argues that such representations are rife with tensions and contradictions. They represent in part an ungendering of previously feminine arenas (such as the makeover, and the home) yet are also marked by a discourse that requires the reassertion of sexual difference and the maintenance of heteronormativity. As such, the urge towards coupling becomes central to these formations, across the range of texts discussed within this thesis. The thesis argues that postfeminist media representations of masculinity are often characterised by an interplay between dominant, residual and emergent formations. In the makeover show, the mission is to improve a man to satisfy his existing partner (perhaps as preparation for a proposal) or to ready him for entry into the dating market. In the lifestyle show, the advice given on how to manage domestic labour is committed to encouraging harmony between the heterosexual couple. The homebuilding sitcom focuses on the challenges of the transition between youth and the establishment of a family unit: finding the right partner, settling down, building a home, having children. The Hollywood romantic comedy, even in its recent, male-centred incarnations, still presents successful coupling as integral, essential, and inevitable, even if its attitude to the union is sometimes ambivalent. In all of these television and film genres, there is a considerable focus on how men must change in order to become, and stay, "marriageable". This emphasis on coupling is paired with images of singledom as failure, a pathologisation which, this thesis argues, is rapidly becoming ungendered. The example texts' reinforcement of compulsory heterosexuality, their focus on a particular 'life-stage' (the early stages of independent living) and the increased focus on men's private lives means that domestic space and the home become key sites in which these tensions and battles are played out. This thesis examines the central role of the home, its decor, arrangement and labour, as both one of the major negotiations of coupling and as an aesthetic strategy for representing different formations of masculinity and postfeminist dilemmas of masculinity within this group of texts.

The thesis explores the construction of gender in the Hollywood Teen Movie, often perceived as 'the odious norm' of Hollywood cinema with little to warrant serious analysis.[1] Although Timothy Shary's work has done much to promote the genre as an area of academic enquiry, there have been few sustained textual analyses of the Teen Movie. Through close textual analysis of seven representative case studies, this thesis stages an encounter between Butler's work on gender and the Teen Movie. Butler’s theorisation of performativity denaturalises and deconstructs the assumption of heteronormativity, enabling a detailed analysis of the genre's 'sexual coming-of-age narrative'.[2] Further, the textual analyses complicate and augment aspects of her theories. Following a review of the literature on the Teen Movie, and an examination of Butler's oeuvre, the thesis is divided into three sections. Firstly, the prom is explored as a typical narrative conclusion to the School Film. Secondly, the following chapter analyses star performance and film acting in the youth delinquency film. The final chapter examines the genre’s construction of the past in the "nostalgic" teen movie. The original contribution to knowledge is twofold: the thesis significantly expands existing work on the Teen Movie, and uses the depth and range of specific examples from the case studies to complicate Butler's work. Textual analysis of each film’s construction of heteronormativity demonstrates that this normative and mainstream genre offers a more complex and critical presentation of heterosexual norms than previously appreciated. The thesis rethinks the norm by demonstrating the complexity of normative culture, which demonstrates a range of examples that call for a reconsideration of Butler's theorisation of gender norms.

This thesis examines the representation of society in British and French cinemas of the 1980s. In this comparative study, the choice of this particular decade was motivated by the coming to power of the Conservative Party in Britain and the Socialist Party in France. Since the two governments adopted 'extreme' policies increasing the strengths and weaknesses traditionally found in their film industries, British cinema struggled even harder while French cinema enjoyed a strong financial support from the state. A significant feature of these two national cinemas in relation to films about society was the predominance of the realist vein in Britain and the comedy genre in France. This generic discrepancy was highly influential in the way the two national cinemas referred to social issues in the 1980s and most scholars have argued that British cinema widely discussed the state of its society whereas, on the whole, French cinema avoided to do so. What this research hopefully demonstrates is that, despite different generic approaches, British and French cinemas equally contributed to depict their contemporary societies. To analyse how these two societies were represented on screen, three main areas are studied thematically: first people in power (public institutions and individuals), second the world of work, and third the family. After a brief summary of social issues in Britain and France in relation with the aforementioned themes, discussions of their filmic representations are based on the films themselves, the textual analysis of films taken as case studies and their critical reception. I will argue that in the 1980s, British cinema offered the overall image of a class-bound society where individuals - living side by side - were unable to escape their social fate. The paradox of this cinema made by a majority of left-wing filmmakers was that ultimately it favoured a rather traditional view of society. By contrast, my research shows that the idea of friendship and solidarity prevailed over economic and social hardship in French cinema. Although this depiction of society was largely consensual, it nevertheless opened the debate for social alternatives.

This thesis examines lesbian costuming and dress in contemporary British and American film and television, offering analyses of sartorial constructions of gay female identities in modern media. It uses close textual analysis and interviews with producers and consumers to examine the production, texts, and reception of selected representations, outlining current social rituals of lesbian style. Interviews were held with Cynthia Summers, Lesley Abernethy, Niamh Morrison, Catherine Adair, Janie Bryant, Tina Scorzafava and Mary Claire Hannan about their designs. Spectators answered questions and responded to photographs and a transcript. The thesis argues that the modern-day designer of lesbian costuming is subject to a contradictory triangle of demands, encompassing the need for costume to support character, resistance to stereotypes, and the recognition and perceived positive politics of identifiable lesbianism. Chapters covering Lip Service and The L Word; Desperate Housewives, Deadwood, and Mad Men, and Gillery’s Little Secret and The Kids Are All Right examine differing results of these pressures. The thesis argues that while anxiety over ‘butch’ stereotypes and heteronormative mainstream demands for assimilation play a part in the overwhelming ‘femininity’ of many examples, an increase in lesbian visibility has also paradoxically instigated a shift away from specificity in media representations through dress because lesbianism is no longer seen as a ‘story’. It suggests that lesbian authorship and using real-life lesbian styles as costume inspiration may offer a way out of the stereotype vs. ‘authentic’ imagery impasse without erasing recognisably lesbian iconography. Finally, the thesis concludes that the production, text and reception of contemporary lesbian images at times comprises a complete circuit of communication, with production decisions and everyday practices of lesbian dress both echoing and informing one another.

The family plays an integral role in Hollywood films of almost every genre. Hollywood’s renditions of the American family, however, remain largely traditional and no longer reflect contemporary reality. This thesis explores how contemporary Hollywood deals with the family, posing the question: ‘Has Hollywood created its own monolithic family model?’ The thesis demonstrates that, rather than offering a solid monolithic family model, the Hollywood family displays a tension between traditional and liberal attitudes, wanting to move forward but unable to let go of the past. The thesis places Hollywood’s representations within a wider cultural framework, utilising social history, feminism and psychoanalytic discourses. This is done through three case studies exploring the nuclear family, and a fourth extended chapter that analyses Hollywood’s alternative families. Chapter One takes as its focus the father-daughter relationship in sequels and series. This relationship is symptomatic of a shift towards a new generation in Hollywood where masculinity is not necessarily the central concern. Although the father-daughter films indicate a renewed interest in women’s familial roles they essentially demonstrate a crisis of masculinity and a traditional, patriarchal model. Chapter Two analyses the mother’s role through the films of Meryl Streep. This chapter situates a discussion of the Hollywood mother within a postfeminist society and questions whether this new generation of Hollywood has promoted a diversification of the maternal role, finding that traditionalism still dominates as maternity and ‘traditional’ femininity remain central concerns. Chapter Three explores the superhero family. This unconventional family is a further symptom of Hollywood’s new generation. That said, the unconventional is used as a tool to promote the conventional – the nuclear family. Superheroics are used to recuperate dysfunctional families and provide an easy ‘fix’ for their troubles. Chapter Four examines the prevalence in contemporary Hollywood of alternative family models. Although these are many and varied, Hollywood’s alternative families (discussed here in terms of single-parents, divorce, gay and lesbian families, the working-class family and the Black American family), ultimately conform to the standards of the nuclear norm, giving further credence to the argument that Hollywood’s families are torn between traditionalism and attempts to embrace liberalism and diversity.

This thesis closely examines the representation of theatre in film, using insights derived from an ever-growing literature dedicated to the notion of intermediality, in order to understand film’s temporary disguise as another medium. With the realization that theatre is not just another object of representation in film, it becomes increasingly apparent that an analysis of theatre-in-film has the potential of serving as a catalyst for a complex reflection on the nature of mediation. The present dissertation studies the conditions under which this potential is realized. Throughout the thesis, I am integrating textual analysis with theoretical considerations, in an attempt to offer new readings of the chosen films and show how they cohere around four distinct problems pertaining to the issue of theatre-in-film. These problems can be spelled out as follows: the length and embedment of the theatrical inserts, the dual address of the represented performances, the relation between quoted theatre and theatricality and the problem of showing versus telling in the representation of theatre. The case studies were selected from a period spanning forty years; they range from Jacques Rivette’s 1968 L’Amour fou to Charlie Kaufman’s 2008 Synecdoche, New York. Through an in-depth analysis of these case studies, the chapters demonstrate that film is extremely versatile in the handling of theatre references, and that it is precisely this versatility that throws in crisis the existent intermedial discourse. I am arguing that staging a theatre event in film comes with its own set of challenges that need to be accounted for with the assistance of a suitable methodology. In a sense, I have devised my own methodology, by using intermediality studies in conjunction with concepts borrowed from narrative and drama theory, as well as with the analytical tools of film studies.

This thesis engages with representations of social crisis in Argentine fictional cinema during 1998-2005, a period when Argentina experienced a deep economic crisis that brought about significant changes in politics, culture, society and the arts. My emphasis is upon the ways in which cinema interpreted both present and long-established dialogues with national and social discourse, while re-assessing notions of national identity, culture and social class. The study contributes to a growing body of scholarship on Argentine film which has no precedent in history. In particular, works published in English over the last five years have offered fresh reflections upon a field that has remained dominated by narrative and aesthetic, rather than analytical, approaches By combining close textual analysis of films to the study of their cultural context my research argues that cinema addressed predominantly middle-class Argentine audiences with critical questions concerning the transformations they were experiencing over those years of crisis. As works of fiction, the films also offered ordinary people the possibility to identify with their own lives and values, stimulating critical reflection and emotional engagement, as well as enjoyment and laughter. The modes through which these films addressed Argentine audiences are themselves as rich and complex as their narrative representations of crisis. Amongst the most compelling achievements of recent Argentine cinema are the diversity of its modes of address, its strong themes, interesting styles and captivating narrative strategies. These films offered domestic audiences both reflective and divergent views on social reality that, without any doubt, enriched the cultural arena in which Argentineans could reflect on their past, their daily life, their values and their relationship with social minorities. In this sense cinema helped Argentine people to learn to live in democracy.