Script Culture and the American Screenplay

Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series

By: Kevin Alexander Boon

Narrated by: Emil N Gallina

Script Culture and the American Screenplay treats the screenplay as a literary work in its own right, presenting analyses of screenplays from a variety of frameworks, including feminism, Marxism, structuralism, philosophy, and psychology.

Script Culture and the American Screenplay is divided into two parts. Part 1 provides a general background for screenplay studies, tracing the evolution of the screenplay from the early shot lists and continuities of George Méliès and Thomas Harper Ince, to the more detailed narratives of contemporary works. Part 2 offers specific, primarily thematic, critical examinations of screenplays, along with discussions of the original screenplay and the screenplay adaptation. In all, Boon explains that screenplay criticism distinguishes itself from traditional film studies in three major ways. The primary focus of screenplay criticism is on the screenplay rather than the film, the focus of screenplay studies is on the screenwriter rather than the director, and screenplay criticism, like literary criticism, is written to illuminate a reader's understanding of the text.

Boon demonstrates that whether we are concerned with aesthetics and identifying rules for distinguishing the literary from the non-literary, or whether we align ourselves with more contemporary theories, which recognize texts as distinguishable in their inter-relationships and marked difference, screenplays constitute a rich cache of works worthy of critical examination.

The audiobook is published by Wayne State University Press.

"Kevin Alexander Boon's stated purpose is to stimulate interest in screenplay criticism - a worthy goal, in my opinion, admirably achieved by Script Culture and the American Screenplay." (James M. Welsh, Salisbury University)

©2008 Wayne State University Press (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks