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Hitchcock's Magic

Hitchcock's Magic

Neil Badmington

(2011)

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Abstract

Why are we still drawn to the work of Alfred Hitchcock so long after his final film appeared? What remains to see? What could there possibly be left to say about tales that are overwhelmingly familiar? Why, moreover, have many of Hitchcock's films entered the popular imagination and enjoyed an eventful life far from the screen? What is the source of Hitchcock's magic? This book answers these questions about the influence and ongoing appeal of Hitchcock's work by focussing upon the fabric of the films themselves, upon the way in which they enlist and sustain our desire, holding our attention by constantly withholding something from us. We keep watching, keep revisiting the stories, because there is always something left to see and know. The book combines detailed textual analysis of a number of Hitchcock's most famous films - Psycho, Rear Window, Rebecca, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and The Birds - with more general discussion of the director's complete body of work. Drawing upon the poststructuralist theories of Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, it takes issue with the biographical and psychoanalytic approaches that have dominated studies of Hitchcock's films to argue instead for the significance of textuality. Hitchcock's Magic is an innovative, lively, and readable book which challenges critical orthodoxy and breaks new ground in the field.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Cover 1
Title Page 4
Copyright 5
Dedication 6
Contents 8
Acknowledgements 10
List of Illustrations 12
Introduction: Hitchcock's Magic; or, How I Starred in Saboteur 14
1: Ps/zycho 34
2: Frame Tale: Rear Window and the Promise of Vision 60
3: SpectRebecca 80
4: Stories of 'O': North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much 98
5: The Animals Who Knew Too Much: The Zoopoetics of The Birds 120
Postscript: Into the Mystery 160
Appendix: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock 162
Notes 166
Bibliography 206
Index 216
Back Cover 222