Re-Reading Birth of a Nation
European Contexts and the War Film
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15415510 |
|---|---|
| Authors | G F Wright (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 36-36 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Black Camera (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1536-3155 • E-ISSN: 1947-4237 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/blackcamera.10.2.04 |
| OpenAlex | W2945147280 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
This article examines the reception of Birth of a Nation (dir. D. W. Griffith) from its 1915 release in various European countries. Considering France and Britain in particular, themes and debates emerge that shed light on the cultural significance this film would have had in Europe at the time. From this historical, archival research, we examine the cultural impact of Birth in these contexts to consider how discourses of race, ethnicity, region, and nationalism in the film were translated into these social, cultural, and political European national contexts, and in particular reflected contemporary concerns around structural divisions in society, the shaping of social hierarchies, and the search for a coherent national identity. Finally, the article examines how a historical study of the film's reception might point us toward certain current debates on filmmaking, which could be used as a lens to re-read the film and further understand contemporary audience responses
Art history · Ethnic group · Film studies · Filmmaking · Media studies · Movie theater · National identity · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Sociology · Anthropology · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |