{"product_id":"wilde-in-the-dream-factory-decadence-and-the-american-movies-hardcover","title":"Wilde in the Dream Factory: Decadence and the American Movies - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eKate Hext\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHollywood is haunted by the ghost of playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde. This is the story of his haunting, told for the first time. Set within the rich evolving context of how the American entertainment industry became cinema, and how cinema become the movies, it reveals how Wilde helped to shape Hollywood in the early twentieth century. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt begins with his 1882 American tour, and traces the ongoing popularity of his plays and novel in the early twentieth century, after his ignominious death. Following the early filmmakers, writers and actors as they headed West in the Hollywood boom, it uncovers how and why they took Wilde's spirit with them. There, in Hollywood, in the early days of silent cinema, Wilde's works were adapted. They were also beginning to define a new kind of style -- a 'Wilde-ish spirit', as Ernst Lubitsch called it -- filtering into the imaginations of Lubitsch himself, as well as Alla Nazimova, Ben Hecht, Samuel Hoffenstein and many others. These were the people who translated Wilde's queer playfulness into the creation of screwball comedies, gangster movies, B-movie horrors, and films noir. There, Wilde and his style embodied a spirit of rebellion and naughtiness, providing a blue-print for the charismatic cinematic criminal and screwball talk onscreen. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDiscussing films including \u003cem\u003eBringing Up Baby\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eUnderworld\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eLaura\u003c\/em\u003e, alongside definitive adaptations of Wilde's works, including, \u003cem\u003eThe Picture of Dorian Gray\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLady Windermere's Fan\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eSalome\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWilde in the Dream Factory\u003c\/em\u003e revises how we understand both Wilde's afterlife and cinema's beginnings.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKate Hext\u003c\/strong\u003e is an Associate Professor in Decadent Literature and the Arts at the University of Exeter and Visiting Professor of English at Ewha Womans University. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eShe is author of \u003cem\u003eWalter Pater: Individualism and Aesthetic Philosophy\u003c\/em\u003e (2013), and co-editor of \u003cem\u003eDecadence in the Age of Modernism\u003c\/em\u003e (2019).\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 28, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47460268540082,"sku":"9780198875376","price":61.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/30f6ca7819e85df2fb58340b0dd582cc.webp?v=1778915682","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/wilde-in-the-dream-factory-decadence-and-the-american-movies-hardcover","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}