Panorama of scholarly work on women and music in Morocco

The article explores why a particular group of Moroccan musicians conceives of different performances of a sung poem titled “Kharbusha” as unchanging despite variables arising from the dynamics of performance practices. To this end, I explore the seeming discrepancy between discourses about “Kharbusha” and its performance, and what this discrep…[Read more]

The article examines Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) in relation to other professional female performers . An analysis of the role that women have as entertainers, and in particular of their behavior in the course of performance, will show how they affect the status of each class of performers. Sketching a panorama of the…[Read more]

The article examines Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) in relation to other professional female performers . An analysis of the role that women have as entertainers, and in particular of their behavior in the course of performance, will show how they affect the status of each class of performers. Sketching a panorama of the…[Read more]

This essay explores Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’Avventura” from a Marxist perspective, including its depiction of the Italian bourgeoisie of “il boom” era of the 1950s and 1960s. Numerous frame enlargements are used to substantiate the claim that even the film’s style contributes to its representations of socioeconomic class.

This article investigates the representation of Italian Americans in classical and contemporary Hollywood cinema, expanding the research originally conducted by noted scholar Mirella Affron.

This article compares and contrasts two films that take place in Japan but that were directed by French and American directors. Their “outsider perspective” is explored in terms of their respective films’ themes, characters, and cinematic styles.

This is a review/analysis of the Antonioni film IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN (1982), occasioned by its DVD release by the Criterion Collection.

American college football features an enormous amount of music woven into the fabric of the event, with selections accompanying approximately two-thirds of a game’s plays. Musical selections are controlled by a number of forces, including audio and video technicians, university marketing departments, financial sponsors, and wind bands. These b…[Read more]

This essay uses Joseph Campbell’s concept of the Monomyth to analyze both the mythic and contemporary implications of a “popcorn” movie that has numerous social and political subtexts for the Reaganite era.

This essay compares After Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW and Michelangelo Antonioni’s BLOW-UP in terms of their similarities in narrative, characters, and cinematic style.

This essay uses the work of Wilhelm Reich to analyze the “mass psychology of fascism” in Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous Nazi propaganda film, TRIUMPH OF THE WILL.

This article examines the parallels between the space alien in Spielberg’s “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” and the New Testament account of the life of Jesus Christ.

This book chapter analyzes Steven Spielberg’s supposedly anti-war SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1992) as a pro-war, pro-military, and pro-America movie.

This book chapter analyzes the numerous responses to the famous videotape of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King at the hands of the L.A. Police Department.

This essay describes and analyzes the anthology film EROS (2004), which consists of three short films by major directors: Wong Kar-wei, Steven Soderbergh, and Michelangelo Antonioni. The focus is on the cinematic depiction of sexuality as it pertains to the national origins of the three shorts: Hong Kong, United States, and Italy.

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s EL TOPO set off a trend for midnight movies that brought numerous esoteric films to an insomniac audience. This essay analyzes the surreal movie and its position as an early exemplar of independent cinema exhibited outside the mainstream patterns.

Repair has visibly come to the fore in recent academic and policy debates, to the point that ‘repair studies’ is now emerging as a novel focus of research. Through the lens of repair, scholars with diverse backgrounds are coming together to rethink our relationships with the human-made matters, tools and objects that are the material mesh in whi…[Read more]

This essay examines the parallels between Frank Capra’s MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and the televised Oliver North hearings 40 years later.