Hitchcock & the Anxiety of Authorship

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction Self-Reflexivity in Hitchcock’s Cinema and Struggles of Authorship

   1. Introduction: Self-Reflexivity in Hitchcock’s Cinema and Struggles of Authorship

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 1-16

3. Compromising Positions: The Director

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

      PDF

   2. Introduction

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 19-38

   3. Murder!

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 39-45

   4. Sabotage

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 47-56

   5. Notorious

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 57-70

   6. Vertigo

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 71-82

   7. Psycho

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 83-93

4. Dramatic Artfulness: The Actor

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

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   2. Introduction

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 97-109

   3. The Lodger

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 111-119

   4. The 39 Steps

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 121-132

   5. Spellbound

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 133-144

   6. Marnie

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 145-154

5. Disturbing Sights: the Audience

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

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   2. Introduction

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 157-171

   3. The Ring

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 173-184

   4. The Man Who Knew Too Much

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 185-197

   5. Strangers on a Train

      • Leslie H. Abramson

      Pages 199-209

Hitchcock and the Anxiety of Authorship examines issues of cinema authorship engaged by and dynamized within the director's films. A unique study of self-reflexivity in Hitchcock's work from his earliest English silents to his final Hollywood features, this book considers how the director's releases constitute ever-shifting meditations on the conditions and struggles of creative agency in cinema. Abramson explores how, located in literal and emblematic sites of dramatic production, exhibition, and reception, and populated by figures of directors, actors, and audiences, Hitchcock's films exhibit a complicated, often disturbing vision of authorship - one that consistently problematizes rather than exemplifies the director's longstanding auteurist image. Viewing Hitchcock in a striking new light, Abramson analyzes these allegories of vexed agency in the context of his concepts of and commentary on the troubled association between cinema artistry and authorship, as well as the changing cultural, industrial, theoretical, and historical milieus in which his features were produced. Accordingly, the book illuminates how Hitchcock and his cinema register the constant dynamics that constitute film authorship.

• Alfred Hitchcock
• director
• cinema authorship
• cinema studies
• auteurism
• self-reflexivity
• British cinema
• Hollywood cinema
• The Lodger
• The Ring
• Murder!
• The Man Who Knew Too Much
• The 39 Steps
• Sabotage
• Spellbound
• Notorious
• Strangers on a Train
• Rear Window
• Vertigo
• Psycho
• cinema
• film
• Hollywood

"Just when it seemed like scholars had little new to write about Hitchcock's films, Abramson provides us with an original reading ranging from the early British films to the American productions of the 60s and 70s. By integrating the director's extensive nonfiction writings and interviews with the self-reflexive artistry that characterizes his movies, Abramson reveals how Hitchcock contradicts traditional auteurist claims about his work, allowing readers to (re)consider how the director articulates the complexities of the creative process. Abramson's accessible writing will encourage those new to Hitchcock to relish the joy of discovering his classic movies and film scholars to applaud her insights into this treacherous cinematic landscape." - Lester D. Friedman, Professor, former Chair, Media and Society Program, Hobart College, USA and William Smith College, USA

Leslie H. Abramson, an adjunct professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, USA, is a film scholar teaching cinema and law. Her essays have been published in Hitchcock and Adaptation (2014), American Cinema of the 1960s (2008), In the Limelight and Under the Microscope: Forms and Functions of Female Celebrity (2011), New Constellations: Movie Stars of the 1960s (2012), and various journals. She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago.

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