The Richard Dyer Reader
Glyn Davis editor Jaap Kooijman editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:7th Sep '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Represents the rich contribution of the film scholar Richard Dyer in an anthology bringing together his key writings from across five decades
Richard Dyer is a foundational figure for the critical study of cinema and popular culture. Across a career spanning five decades, he has made path breaking contributions to our understanding of stardom and celebrity, gay and queer politics and cultural history, film music, race and whiteness and the pleasures of popular entertainment.
The Richard Dyer Reader brings together for the first time key writings by this vital and influential figure, many of which are not otherwise available. The anthology guides readers through Dyer’s prolific and rich output through six thematic selections of essays and extracts, each centred on a key theme in Dyer's work: stardom and the image; entertainment and ideology; gay politics and representation; whiteness; the pleasures of popular entertainment, and textual analysis. A seventh section comprises a selection of interviews conducted across the span of his career, as well as a new interview with editors Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman.
The book will provide an introduction for those new to Dyer’s writings, as well as offering a fresh perspective for readers with a more comprehensive knowledge of his work. The collection includes archival and recent pieces of writing never previously anthologised, newly commissioned essays, a substantial introduction to Dyer’s life and work and framing introduction to each section.
Richard Dyer is one of the most important film scholars in the world – establishing the fields of star and sexuality studies while exercising a huge influence on the analysis of race and gender in popular culture. It is remarkable that his work has not yet been collected in this kind of volume – perhaps because he is rightly careful about how to do it. In Glyn Davis and Jaap Kooijman, he has the perfect anthologists. -- Mandy Merck, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
For half a century, Dyer has been one of the most important, impassioned and insightful observers in film/media and cultural studies. The Richard Dyer Reader’s selections – on action film, musicals, politics, gay pornography, whiteness, television, disco, stardom and much more – showcase Dyer at his blissfully jargon-free best. -- Chris Holmlund, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, USA
As with any collection, its success is shaped by the editors and it is a testament to Davis and Kooijman that the anthology is comprehensive, enlightening and unexpected, instantly positioning it as indispensable for Dyer neophiles and completists. * Screen *
ISBN: 9781839023170
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
560 pages