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Ray Carney, American
Vision: The Films of Frank Capra (Hanover, N.H. University Press of
New England, 1996), 88 illustrations, paperback, 510 pages. This book
is available directly from the author for $20.
 The
first interdisciplinary study of America’s best-known filmmaker. In this
daring and unorthodox study, Ray Carney places the work of Frank Capra
in the great tradition of American transcendentalism–along with paintings
by Homer, Eakins, Sargent, Hopper and the writings of Emerson, Poe, Hawthorne,
and William and Henry James, among others.
Interweaving wide-ranging discussions
of American literature, drama, and painting and the work of other filmmakers
with detailed analyses of such films as It's a Wonderful Life,
Meet John Doe, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Carney
finds in Capra's life and work a classic American struggle for self-expression
within the repressive structures of ordinary life. In this larger cultural
context, Capra emerges as something far more radical than the social
realist
he is often taken to be–as a visionary determined to unleash "mysterious,
distinctive, personal energies that defy social understandings or control."
American Vision was reprinted
in 1996 with a new Preface outlining recent developments in Capra criticism,
and detailing the shortcomings of current Cultural Studies approaches
to his work.
For reviews and critical responses
to American Vision: The Films of Frank Capra, please click
here. (Use your back button to return to this page.)
This book is available through
Amazon,
Barnes
and Noble, your local bookseller, or, for a limited time, directly
from the author (in discounted and specially autographed editions). See
below for information how to order this book directly from the author
by money order, check, or credit card. Clicking
on the above links will open a new window in your browser. You may return
to this page by closing that window or by clicking on the window for this
page again.
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Ray
Carney has the longest and most ambitious essay he has ever written about
film and philosophy in the following book. The essay is more than 40,000
words long.
A Modern Mosaic: Art and Modernism in the United States, Edited by
Townsend Ludington
(University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 225 b&w illustrations, paperback,
472 pages. This
book is available directly from this site for $29.
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The modernist movement
has shaped our era as has no other. This insightful collection of
original essays explores the impact of modernism on American culture
and the ways in which modernism remains a key to understanding American
art and society.
An impressive cast of
scholars examines works and their creators across the whole spectrum
of artistic expressionófiction and poetry, painting and sculpture,
architecture, dance, photography, and film. In fresh and provocative
essays they explore how the ideas of modernism helped shape such
artistic expressions as the writings of the Harlem Renaissance,
the paintings of Edward Hopper, New Deal public art projects, and
George Antheil’s Ballet Mècanique. Extensive use of color and black-and-white
illustrations results in a book that is as appealing visually as
it is stimulating intellectually.
The contributors are
Casey Nelson Blake, Robert Cantwell, Ray Carney, Thomas Fahy, Lucy
Fischer, John F. Kasson, William E. Leuchtenburg, Lucinda H. MacKethan,
Randy Martin, Carol J. Oja, Miles Orvell, Joan Shelley Rubin, Jon
Michael Spencer, and Maren Stange.
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This book is available through
Amazon,
Barnes
and Noble, University
of North Carolina Press, your local bookseller, or, for a limited
time, directly from the author (in discounted, specially autographed editions).
See below for information how
to order this book directly from the author by money order, check, or
credit card. Clicking
on the above links will open a new window in your browser. You may return
to this page by closing that window or by clicking on the window for this
page again.
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For another
discussion of American painting and culture by Ray Carney, see:
"When Mind is a Verb: Thomas Eakins and the Doing of Thinking,"
in Morris Dickstein (ed.) The Revival of Pragmatism: New Essays
in Social Thought, Law, and Culture (Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 1998), 5 photographs, paperback, 464 pages. This book
is available directly from this site for $25.
Available
through Amazon
, Barnes
and Noble, your local bookseller, or, for a limited time, directly
from the author (in discounted, specially autographed editions).
See below for information
how to order this book directly from the author by money order,
check, or credit card.
Clicking on the
above links will open a new window in your browser. You may return
to this page by closing that window or by clicking on the window
for this page again.
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These books may be bought through
the web sites listed above, or obtained directly from the author, by using
the Pay Pal Credit Card button below, or by sending a check or money order
to the address below. However you order the book or books, please provide
the following information:
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Checks or money orders may be mailed to:
Ray Carney
Special Book Offer
College of Communication
640 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston University Boston, MA 02215
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American Vision: The
Films of Frank Capra