Children in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock

by Debbie Olson

Overview

Children and youth perform both innocence and knowingness within Hitchcock's complex cinematic texts. Though the child often plays a small part, their significance - symbolically, theoretically, and philosophically - offers a unique opportunity to illuminate and interrogate the child presence within the cinematic complexity of Hitchcock's films.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349501854
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/17/2014
Edition description:	1st ed. 2014
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Noel Brown, Newcastle University, UK Jason McEntee, South Dakota State University, USA Markus Bohlmann, Seneca College, Canada Sean Moreland, University of Ottawa, Canada Adrian Schober, Monash University, Australia Brian Walter, St. Louis College of Pharmacy, USA F.E. Pheasant-Kelly, University of Wolverhampton, UK Samantha Lay, University of Houston, USA Craig Martin, La Trobe University, Australia William McBride, Illinois State University, USA Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., Loyola Marymount University, USA Peter Lee, Drew University, USA Elizabeth Ramsey, University of Southern California, USA

Table of Contents

Introduction: Hitchcock's Children; Debbie Olson 1. Hitchcock's Missing Children: Genre, Auteurship, and Audience Address; Noel Brown 2. "The Future's Not Ours to See": How Children and Young Adults Reflect the Anxiety of Lost Innocence in Alfred Hitchcock's American Movies; Jason McEntee 3. The Child Who Knew Too Much: Liminality in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man who Knew Too Much (1934 and 1956); Elizabeth Ramsey 4. No Laughing Matter: Imperiling Kids and Country in Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage; Peter Lee 5. "If You Ripped the Fronts Off Houses": Killing Innocence in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt; Markus Bohlmann and Sean Moreland 6. Daddy's Girl: The Knowing Innocent in Strangers on a Train; Brian Walter, St. Louis College of Pharmacy 7. Renegotiating Romanticism and the All-American Boy Child: Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry; Adrian Schober 8. Between Knowingness and Innocence: Child Ciphers in Hitchcock's Marnie and The Birds; F. E. Pheasant-Kelly 9. The Child Hero in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds; Samantha Lay 10. "It's the End of the World!": Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and the Evil Children Film; Craig Martin 11. Psycho without a Cause: Norman Bates and Juvenile Delinquency Cinema; Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. 12. Hitchcock's Stylized Capture of Post-Adolescent Fatheads; William McBride

Editorial Reviews

" Children in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock amounts to a stunning collective appreciation by its editor and contributors of the significant role played by children and child-adults in Hitchcock - and of why the director's films, based on multiple points of view, favour 'liminality' over strict 'coherence'. This is cutting-edge film analysis of such Hitchcock masterworks as The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and 1956), Shadow of a Doubt , Strangers on a Train , The Trouble With Harry , and The Birds . Expert and illuminating." - Ken Mogg, contributor to A Companion to Alfred Hitchcock

From the Publisher