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THE HOLLYWOOD LEFT: CINEMATIC ART AND ACTIVISM IN THE 1930s
by
Sam Mithani
____________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CINEMA-TELEVISION—CRITICAL STUDIES)
December 2007
Copyright 2007 Sam Mithani
Object Description
| Title | The Hollywood left: cinematic art and activism in the 1930s |
| Author | Mithani, Sam |
| Author email | mithani@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Cinema-Television (Critical Studies) |
| School | School of Cinema-Television |
| Date defended/completed | 2007-08-17 |
| Date submitted | 2007 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2007-09-13 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Marez, Curtis |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Kinder, Marsha Simic, Andrei |
| Abstract | The dissertation re-examines the Thirties in its artistic, cultural and political specificity to place leftist cultural productions in their complex contexts, particularly the ideological. It concentrates on radical/proletarian fiction and Hollywood leftist cinema as expressions of prevalent "crisis" conditions, such the Great Depression and the New Deal, anti-Semitism, anticommunism, labor unionism, racism in the South, and the rise of fascism/Nazism. It demonstrates how the leftist favored genres in literature (proletarian fiction) and cinema (the social-problem film) underwent transformations in response to the changing national and global conditions, leftist political positions and debates on the inter-relations between art, ideology and culture. Working in the tradition of American social criticism, the Hollywood Left responded productively to the challenges by creating a vibrant cinematic counter-discourse. Leftists strived to create a "popular Marxism" and a "leftist populism" by interpellating their critique within popular Hollywood genres, albeit subject to the commercial mandate of the studio system and its heavy-handed censorship apparatus. This contentious and creative engagement produced some of the most memorable "critical" works of Hollywood's "Golden Age" such as I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Fury and Dust Be My Destiny. The dissertation critically examines these films, compares them to the mainstream "populist cinema" of Frank Capra, and argues that the Hollywood Left creatively reworked this populism to fashion a far more critical, even abrasive, cinema, giving rise to the foundational works of American film noir. The dissertation also frames leftist cinema as a committed response to the remarkable changes in race, class, gender and ideology taking places within American culture. In particular, the totalitarian ideologies of fascism and Nazism presented grave challenges to democracy.; The Hollywood Left led the filmic battle against these forces and produced energetic cinematic propaganda in films like Blockade (1938), Juarez (1939) and Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), which are the focus of this work. In essence the dissertation calls for a re-evaluation of the "Red Decade" as one of great cultural and artistic renaissance for American culture and the Left rather than one of disappointment, disillusion and disenchantment as has been popularized by conservative critics. |
| Keyword | 1930s; The Hollywood Left; Frank Capra; antifascism/anti-Nazism; social-problem film; proletarian literature; Marxist films |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Hollywood; Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1930/1939 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m814 |
| Rights | Mithani, Sam |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Mithani-20070913 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume32/etd-Mithani-20070913.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | THE HOLLYWOOD LEFT: CINEMATIC ART AND ACTIVISM IN THE 1930s by Sam Mithani ____________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (CINEMA-TELEVISION—CRITICAL STUDIES) December 2007 Copyright 2007 Sam Mithani |
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