This thesis achieves a deconstructive interrogation of American national identity by analysing its representation in contemporary independent cinema. Drawing upon the poststructuralist work of Jacques Derrida (and limited applications of his thought to film scholarship), this project theorises a rigorous (but non-programmatic) model for conducting deconstructive readings of cinematic texts. Engaging with a corpus of ostensibly independent films, case-study analyses of American identity narratives are used to theorise and enact a fruitful process of Derridean cinematic and cultural interpretation. In undertaking this broad theoretical objective, I intervene within a range of specific filmic and socio-political debates. Analysing texts drawn from within prevailing independent film definitions, this project undertakes a deconstructive re-inscription of this prominent cinematic category. Destabilising its conventional designation as Hollywood’s antonymic “other,” the ontological solidity of independent film is fatally compromised, opening up its constituent texts to a greater range of interpretative gestures. Furthermore, in addressing textual representations of national identity, I elucidate a discursive area largely unexplored in existing independent film scholarship. Characterising case-study analyses as overtly deconstructive, this thesis also destabilises structural orthodoxies that orient American identity discourses around dichotomous concepts of character and place. Thus, studying representations of prominent cultural narratives (individualism, the nuclear family, the small-town, and the wilderness), this thesis uncovers and then dismantles their restrictive metaphysical foundations. Specifically, drawing attention to discursive slippages and paradoxes that inhabit these forms of cultural narration, textual readings problematize their self-coherence and ontological closure. Relating these cultural analyses to popular and academic discourses of national identity, this thesis also expands the reach of Derridean theory into a range of other disciplines, such as American studies. Ultimately, this thesis’ multifaceted research objectives open up American identity discourses to an unfixed freeplay of différance, laying the foundations for a liberatory intervention into oppositional American cultural debates.

This thesis considers the mythology connected to the maritime sphere and notions of British national identity and collective unity through the projection of the maritime in British film and television. Specifically, it traces the evolution of this myth through the period 1960-2012, a post-Imperialist era characterised by broad social, economic and political changes and internal divisions within the historic Union of Great Britain, demonstrating how British culture continually uses the past to comment on the present. The thesis argues that the maritime remains a vibrant cultural site of British national self-examination and re-examination despite the precipitous decline of both Empire and Royal Navy within this time period. The specific audio-visual properties of the filmic and televisual forms and their position as the most successful cultural industries of the 20th Century suggest themselves as vital components for interrogating national myth and projections of collective unity and the attendant challenges to these. Aligned to this is the manner in which critical reception continues to operate as an indigent of collective memory, morality and communality aligning itself as provision not only of positive cultural taste but also of a wider debate on the merits or de-merits of the specific components of myth and identity. Each text is situated within its specific historical and industrial context and a combination of primary sources, textual analysis and reception studies are unified to argue that both the texts themselves and their reception within critical discourse collectively negotiate the role that media cultures play in constructing and challenging notions of collective identity and myth. Finally, this thesis argues constructively, that the seemingly banal cultural symbols of national identity and mythology, far from being an irrelevance in a globalised age, remain amongst the most vital cultural, social, political and economic discourses of the age.

Harry Benshoff has boldly proclaimed that ‘horror stories and monster movies, perhaps more than any other genre, actively invoke queer readings’ (1997, p. 6). For Benshoff, gay audiences have forged cultural identifications with the counter-hegemonic figure of the ‘monster queer’ who disrupts the heterosexual status quo. However, beyond identification with the monstrous outsider, there is at present little understanding of the interpretations that gay fans mobilise around different forms and features of horror and the cultural connections they establish with other horror fans online. In addressing this gap, this thesis employs a multi-sited netnographic method to study gay horror fandom. This holistic approach seeks to investigate spaces created by and for gay horror fans, in addition to their presence on a mainstream horror site and a gay online forum. In doing so, this study argues that gay fans forge deep emotional connections with horror that links particular textual features to the construction and articulation of their sexual and fannish identities. In developing the concept of ‘emotional capital’ that establishes intersubjective recognition between gay fans, this thesis argues that this capital is destabilised in much larger spaces of fandom where gay fans perform the successful ‘doing of being’ a horror fan (Hills, 2005). This, I argue, illustrates that gay horror fandom is constructed and performed differently across fan spaces as a means to articulate gay identity in culturally meaningful ways. In presenting the voices of gay fans, the significance of this thesis lies in challenging existing models of horror fandom by suggesting its multiplicity for the fans researched. Indeed, whilst the ‘knowledgeability’ (Hills, 2005) of horror fans is important, this study explores the meaningful connections that gay fans establish with one another and the cultural significance of horror to the identity work of fans across distinctive online spaces.

This thesis is a study of the children’s horror trend of the 1980s and 1990s focused on the transformation of the concepts of childhood and horror. Specifically, it discusses the segmentation of childhood to include the pre-teen demographic, which emerges as a distinct Millennial figure, and the ramifications of this social and cultural shift both on the horror genre and the entertainment industry more broadly, namely through the introduction of the deeply impactful PG-13 rating. The work thus adds to debates on children and horror, examining and questioning both sides: notions of suitability and protection of vulnerable audiences, as well as cultural definitions of the horror genre and the authority behind them. The thesis moreover challenges the reasons behind academic dismissal of these texts, pointing out their centrality to on-going discussions over childhood, particularly the pre-teen demographic, and suggesting a different approach to the PG-13 rating, its origin and its present-day status. Structured as a comprehensive outline of the children’s horror trend with special emphasis on its influential film cycle, the thesis explores the dissonances between definitions of horror in the children’s sphere and the adult’s sphere, and highlights the parallels between the children’s horror trend and Millennial childhood both in period (early 1980s-late 1990s) and progression (initial controversy over the boundaries of childhood, focus on transition and pre-adolescence, and decline), suggesting the children’s horror trend as a hub for period-specific struggles over childhood that were strongly associated with the emergence of the pre-teen as a new Millennial demographic. The thesis therefore brings to light an unjustly forgotten trend and contextualizes it to reveal a tremendous shift in American attitudes toward childhood, the horror genre and the film industry itself.

Girls and young women have become more ubiquitous than ever in twenty-first century media culture. This is particularly true of cinema, as some of the most successful recent films are centred around young female protagonists, such as The Hunger Games franchise (Ross, 2012) and Fifty Shades of Grey (Taylor-Johnson, 2015). British cinema has also witnessed a proportionate increase in girl-centred films since the millennium, some of which are contemporary British cinema’s most successful films. This includes commercial hits such as StreetDance 3D (Giwa and Pasquini, 2010) and St Trinian’s (Parker and Thompson, 2007), as well as an increasing number of critically acclaimed films by female filmmakers, such as Fish Tank (Arnold, 2009) and The Falling (Morley, 2014). However, these films have so far received little or no academic attention. This thesis explores how young femininity is constructed in female-centred British films between 2000 and 2015 in an era defined as postfeminist. It examines key themes such as girls’ ambitions, education and friendship. I use a combination of textual analysis and critical reception study, as well as analysis of extra-textual and paratextual materials where appropriate, to examine how discourses of girlhood are mediated both within the films themselves and outside of them in order to discern how these films and their critical reception contribute to, and are informed by, ideas about girlhood that circulate within the wider culture. In doing so, I argue for a nationally-specific postfeminist framework, and consequently provide a greater understanding of how postfeminism is articulated within a British context. I also seek to counter the author-led, masculine bias within British cinema through positioning critically respected films alongside critically maligned films, particularly those aimed at young girls, in order to provide these films with much-needed academic attention and demonstrate that they are worthy of consideration in relation to British cinema’s output in the twenty first century.

This PhD researches the role of product placement in modern Chinese cinema, exploring the shifting discourses and textually-specific practices that are unique to the practice of product placement within the Chinese film industry. Existing studies have focused almost exclusively on the Hollywood film industry, and have analysed product placement in terms of its effectiveness with audiences, and as a potential influence on consumer behaviour, often from a psychological or marketing viewpoint. This study approaches product placement from industrial and textual perspectives, more interested in the process of product placement in film production: how trade press reports, state and industry discourse, and practitioner commentary, frames product placement within the Chinese film experience. Therefore, this is a shift from work on the consequences of product placement, or simplistic notions of good/bad product placement, to an investigation of the discursive and textual strategies used by the Chinese film industry when using product placement in modern film production. This allows the thesis to focus on how the Chinese industry offers an illusion of serving the public, able to use its expertise to position product placement as what an assumed audience wants. Examining different players in product placement deals such as film producers, product placement agencies, brand companies, and the Chinese government, also allows the study to consider the shifting hierarchies of expertise and power. Within this, the study identifies and analyses two specific power relationships: state vs film industry, and creativity vs commercialisation. Alongside industrial commentary, the study examines the textual status of product placement through close mise-en-scène analysis of a range of contemporary Chinese film examples. It identifies three elements – 2 narrative, character, and genre – as key areas where product placement is most overtly displayed, visualised and embodied, and considers the impact this has on narrative coherence. Through this combination of discourse analysis and film analysis, the study is able to critically investigate the role product placement plays within the modern Chinese film industry.

What is ‘fun’ about the Hollywood version of girlhood? What kinds of pleasure does this version of girlhood invite us to enjoy? Through re-evaluating notions of pleasure and fun, this thesis forms a study of Hollywood girl teen films between 2000-2010. The aesthetic dimensions of commercial girl teen films are particularly underexplored. This study identifies the key aesthetics of girl teen film and articulates the specific types of tactile and kinaesthetic pleasures they are designed to create. Working outside of gendered hierarchies of pleasure and aesthetics, the thesis focuses on ‘look and feel’. The study draws on recent literature that prioritises the relationship between film, the body, and affect, in conjunction with Susanne Langer’s (1953, 1957) concept and Richard Dyer’s (2002) application of ‘embodiments of feeling’, to present a new way of understanding the ‘fun’ in girl teen films. After situating the thesis in a film studies context, the five core chapters each examine recurrent moments of ‘fun’ and fundamental aesthetic pleasures found in these films. The opening chapter explores the influence of ‘Cinderella’s Pleasures’ on girl teen film as a fairy tale framework in which pleasure is the main concern and character visibility is the central reward. I suggest that the Cinderella character-icon is adorned in ways that invite audiences to enjoy the tactile pleasures of accessories and clothing. In the second chapter tactility is also central to the ‘Celebrity Glamour’ that surrounds the girls in these films and, defining glamour, I consider the ways that visibility, space, and place are constructed as appealing. In ‘Sporting Pleasures’ I analyse the ways that the body of the Cinderella character-icon is itself a surface, rendered to generate kinaesthetic pleasures grounded in physical work, perfection, and collective synchrony. This interest in the potential to generate kinaesthetic pleasures continues in the chapter on ‘Musical Address’, which examines how the musical numbers in these films draw on the pleasures and capacities of the body in relation to music and dance. The final chapter brings all of the key moments of ‘fun’ together and I analyse the relationship between music, dance, image, and the body in more detail: exploring how ‘Music Video Aesthetics’ generate the feelings of music and dance to make a spectacle of ‘everyday’, ‘feminine’ activities. This research develops a new way of exploring ‘feminine’ forms of popular culture. It questions the gendered hierarchies of pleasure that scholarship often maintains, articulates the ‘fun’ version of girlhood that Hollywood presents, and offers an understanding of the kinds of physical and affective pleasures that these films invite us to enjoy.

I have long had an interest in reworking iconic love stories from the romantic world of opera into contemporary, gay contexts, with the intention of demonstrating the similarities as well as the differences between homosexual and heterosexual relationships. I have not been satisfied with my attempts thus far, and so, as I adapt the story made famous by Puccini in Madama Butterfly, I want to readdress and to improve my practice to ensure that the resulting screenplay speaks authentically to a 21st century audience whilst still echoing its forebear. Using this creative practice, this PhD extends into the process of adaptation Dallas J. Baker’s (2011) concept of ‘queered practice-­‐led research’. It begins with an historical case-­‐study of the genealogy of the story that became Madama Butterfly and its descendants, looking for the intentions of the creators of each version. Through this process I seek to identify the essence of the story – its ‘genetic identity’ in terms of both theme and plot – from which I will create my new version. Crucially, the thesis is written from my perspective as a practitioner, and maintains focus on my intention in embarking on the adaptation project. The thesis continues with reflection on my practice in writing the adapted screenplay, exploring the effect of the changes I have made, the most significant being making the central relationship homosexual. It examines how that queering process fundamentally alters the story in far more respects than simply the gender and sexuality of the central characters, and suggests that it liberates the story. In conclusion it reflects on how my research has informed my practice, and my practice my research, and assesses how the additional freedoms afforded by queering the story have liberated it, and have enhanced my practice as a screenwriter.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, certain artists, writers, and philosophers became intrigued by the profound ways in which filmic images could pervade aspects of modern thought and experience. For them, film had the potential to reveal radical new dimensions of sensory phenomena. The early development of avant-garde film-making in Europe is culturally crucial not only for its historical and conceptual context of creative transition, but also for its dynamic exploration of processes of visual perception. The central objective of this thesis is to expose and engage these profound perceptual issues. The structural formation of the thesis entails the confluencing of material for analysis into a sequence of key areas comprising the central components of avant-garde cinematic visualisation. The visual implications of each area are analysed in specific depth, whilst acknowledging their respective interactivity. Significantly, the research applies analytic theories of phenomenology in order to focus incisively upon relevant early European avant-garde filmic imagery. The potential vitality of a phenomenological theorisation of early avant-garde film resides not only within their historical contemporaneity, but at the epistemological level of the mind’s cognitive engagement with the realms of creative visualisation. It is a system of analysis which aims to establish a nuanced phenomenological theory of visual perception as a matter of prime sustenance to historically crucial cinematic art forms.

This PhD thesis is the product of practice-­‐based research in which I used reflexive documentary filmmaking—along with reflection on and theorization of that practice—to engage with issues of authenticity and mediation in documentary. I confront a particular conundrum that has enduring resonance for documentary scholars and filmmakers: How do we reconcile claims and expectations of authenticity in documentary with the fact of mediation? My work puts this fundamental documentary dilemma into a new context and offers a different way of engaging with it—experientially and from a unique perspective. I explored this dilemma in practice through the process of making a documentary film, and I sought insight from those who also deal with issues of authenticity and mediation but in a completely different context—in the foreign national restaurant in London. The resulting film Eating Cultures—the practice component of this thesis—constructs a relationship between the meal in the restaurant and the documentary film based around the metaphors of “eating cultures” and “mediating worlds”. The written thesis then contextualizes and reflects on the practice and develops these themes—considering the documentary dilemma within the broader contemporary context of cultural globalization, making new cross-­‐disciplinary connections with tourism and food studies scholarship, further articulating and theorizing the metaphors of “eating cultures” and “mediating worlds”, and finally suggesting additional cross-­‐disciplinary relevance within cultural cosmopolitanism scholarship.