Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Music

In recent years film scholars has turned their attention to the cinematic conventions of romantic comedies. Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Deborah Jermyn, and Stacey Abbott have advocated for the scholarly merits of the genre; these scholars posit that through romantic comedies, we can trace developments in women's rights and feminist critiques of hegemonic masculinity. Scholars have recently focused attention on popular music in film, as well, and argued for its inclusion in serious musical study in works such as The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music (Jeff Smith, 1998), Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music (ed. Pamela Robertson Wojcik and Arthur Knight, 2001), and Pop Fiction: The Song in Cinema (ed. Steve Lannin and Matthew Caley, 2005), among others. Nonetheless, romantic comedies are largely missing from the discourse about popular music, possibly because of the common assumption that the genre's conventions hold no merit as a subject for academic investigation. Based on information gathered from romantic comedy audiences this dissertation makes the case that postmillennial romantic comedies deploy popular song conventions to underscore character development, create irony, and question the validity of the happy ending. Thus, rather than conveying superficial messages of romance, songs in postmillennial romantic comedies destabilize a postfeminist ideology that asserts the achievement of gender equality. As they are deployed in the films, these songs are not a simple marketing ploy or entertainment intended for a mindless audience; rather they convey an argument for female autonomy and the continued need for feminist discourse. Films discussed in this dissertation include Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Sweet Home Alabama (2002), Love Actually (2003), Trainwreck (2015), and Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), among others.

Committee: Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Advisor); Arved Ashby (Committee Co-Chair); Sean O'Sullivan (Committee Member); Daniel Goldmark (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, American Culture Studies

This dissertation examines the generational renegotiation of the American Dream as represented in popular comedic films that center on issues of upward mobility throughout the post-WWII era. Through a combination of narrative and thematic analyses of select motion picture comedies, contextualized within a dynamic historical framework, I build on the assertion that these movies essentially serve as time capsules of dominant cultural anxieties, offering invaluable insights into the social fabric of American culture of the past seventy years. Ultimately, I argue that this proves to be a tattered patchwork tapestry at best comprising individuals who are bound only by a shared belief in the ideals of meritocracy, equal opportunity and progress, even despite consistent patterns of systemic exclusion. Fundamentally, this is the story of what made audiences laugh and why, and what this says about the changing shape of the American Dream since the end of the Second World War. It is history as witnessed through the lens of the humanities, told chronologically and from multiple points of view. Throughout this project, I describe how even something as steadfast and resilient as the American Dream has repeatedly had to adapt to changing social contexts and can mean very different things according to one's race, socioeconomic class and gender, among other variables. Through a consideration of these underrepresented dimensions of the American experience and by covering a broad historical landscape in my research, I seek to supplement existing scholarship in film studies, American history and cultural studies by offering novel understandings of the interrelated dynamics of film comedy and public discourse.

Committee: Timothy Messer-Kruse PhD (Advisor); Lesa Lockford PhD (Committee Member); Jeffrey Brown PhD (Committee Member); Dena Eber MFA (Other) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Film Studies; Mass Media

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2022, Film

This is an accompanying paper to my thesis film "Easy Bullet". The film is 8 minutes long. The paper explores in depth how a few important films and books on filmmaking influenced my process. It describes the impact they had on the film by breaking down the process into its components. There are sections about the writing, camera work, directing, as well as many other important filmmaking aspects. It also discusses the ways in which my own personal experience shaped my film.

Committee: Steven Ross (Advisor); Ofer Eliaz (Committee Member); Lindsey Martin (Committee Member); Rafal Sokolowski (Committee Chair) Subjects: Film Studies; Fine Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation aims to analyze contemporary Brazilian comedies (1998-2020) and their commercial success in the domestic market. I argue that this success is linked both to changes in the film industry itself (in production, distribution, and exhibition) and to social, political, economic, and cultural transformations in Brazil in the last two decades. For these transformations, one of the main aspects was the social ascension of millions of Brazilians during the government of President Lula (2003-2011), when a “new middle class” emerged in the country. With greater purchasing power, these Brazilians began to consume more goods and services, in addition to spending more on leisure activities such as cinema. As a result, comedies have become the most consumed national genre, accumulating millions of viewers every year. In addition to the historical connection that audiences have with humor in Brazilian cinema, comedies currently enjoy more financial and artistic resources for their production and distribution, which puts them ahead of other cinematographic genres. On the one hand, new public funding laws emerged in 2006, which privileged the financing of commercial film projects. On the other hand, comedies have developed a very close partnership with television through Globo, the largest media conglomerate in Latin America. All of this was fundamental for the advancement of the national cinema industry, a process in which comedies had a great impact.

Committee: Laura Podalsky (Advisor); Isis Barra Costa (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies; Latin American Studies

Bachelor of Science of Media Arts and Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2021, Media Arts and Studies

Overdose is a TV show about reacting to one's reality when ingrained expectations stray wildly from what we anticipate. However, if we are getting technical, it is about a twenty-year-old kid named Auggie who gets superpowers when under the influence of narcotics. Auggie, a morally straight and stubbornly innocent young man, faces a moral struggle between clinging to his virtues and helping those in need. On top of this, his world of superpowers is flipped on its head when other meta-humans surface with comically specific and useless powers. Overdose takes inspiration from a wide variety of movies, shows, and comic books with the aim to subvert the superhero genre in a way that has not been done before. Using complex themes, new ideas, and a power dynamic of a superpowered world yet to be seen, Overdose takes aim at the preceding legacy of the superhero content conglomerate.

Committee: Beth Novak (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, French and Italian

Film comedy as a genre is exceptionally difficult to define. As comedy scholar Gerald Mast argued in his seminal work The Comic Mind, “we pretty much know what a comedy is even if we do not know what Comedy is” (9). Indeed, the viewing public is able to identify a film as a comedy, but it is difficult to put into words what makes a film comedy. While giving an overarching definition of such a diverse genre is certainly challenging, this dissertation aims to theorize a particular element of film comedy, what I am terming the comic object, to conceive of larger generic conventions and make a step towards answering the puzzling question of what film comedy is. Because any sort of discussion of a genre as varied as comedy needs to be restricted, I limit my study to films of France's classical era (1930s-1960s). I have chosen this timeframe not only because it is the “golden age of French comedy” (Remi Fournier Lanzoni, French Comedy on Screen, 69), but also because this historical period represents a moment of change and reorganization of a French society mediated by objects as a result of the rise of consumer culture and advertisement, shifting relationships to capitalism, and nationalist policies and projects that are reflected in the philosophy, literature, art, and film of the era. Through four chapters focusing on a distinct typology of the comic object—the commercial object, the domestic object, the hygiene object, and the fashion object—I examine an increasing intrusion of the object in space and into/onto the body. Using phenomenology and contemporary philosophies of perception, I build a theory of the comic film object, arguing that the comic object has a specific ontology derived from its framing and movement, comic environment, dialectic with the comic figure, conceptual ties to the body, its representational force as a sign and as bodily replacement, and its unique relationship to realism. The comic object is one that is liberated and unruly, freeing eit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Flinn (Advisor); Patrick Bray (Committee Member); Benjamin Hoffmann (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

From the medieval era to the 1950s, European and Euro-American cultures often accused Jews of “deviant” masculinity—asserting that Jewish men lack penises or even menstruate, while deeming Jewish women “mannish.” These masculine stereotypes reinforced the racial stigma on Jews, who were often deemed nonwhite or not-quite-white “Asiatics,” “Semites,” or “Orientals” until the 1950s. Although (light-skinned) American Jews are usually considered white today, debates linger about where Jews “fit” racially—for example, when the 2017 Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally chanted “Jews will not replace us.” These questions link with ongoing stereotypes of deviant Jewish masculinity, like media images of nebbishy Jewish men or aggressive Jewish women. Yet feminist scholarship on race and masculinity often overlooks Jews by conflating them with white gentiles. And despite the masculine stigmas on Jewish women, studies on Jewish masculinity tend to examine only men. Likewise, Jewish studies rarely analyzes how anti-Semitic ideas about race or masculinity impact Jews of color. These gaps limit analysis of Jews and race even as anti-Semitism regains public attention in the United States and Europe. Millennial Jewish Stars: Masculinity, Racial Ambiguity, and Public Allure fills these gaps by examining six young Jewish stars in the U.S. media: the mixed-race rapper Drake, comedic rapper Lil Dicky, film actors Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, and TV comedy duo Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. I study how these stars repackage historical notions of Jewish race and masculinity to comment on white male supremacy. In turn, these cultural commentaries fuel each star's appeal. Using a “star studies” methodology, I analyze each star's performances (films, TV shows, music videos, stand-up sets, and podcasts) alongside interviews, social media posts, and publicity materials. I advance Jewish, feminist, queer, and critical race studies by showing that the racial position of American Jews is best studie (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Linda Mizjewski (Advisor); Shannon Winnubst (Committee Member); M. Joseph Ponce (Committee Member); Laura Levitt (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender Studies; Judaic Studies

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2018, Theater

This thesis examines romantic comedies and postfeminism through analysis of Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones's Baby, Sex and the City, and The Mindy Project. Attached to the thesis is the original one-act play, Hypothetical.

Committee: Erin Schlumpf Ph.D (Advisor) Subjects: Theater

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2016, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

This thesis discusses the increasing visibility of masculine identity in contemporary Hollywood comedies. I examine how shifting developments in economic, societal, cultural, and gender relations impacted the perception of cinematic masculinity. The men, more specifically white and heterosexual, in these films position themselves as victims and, as a result, turn to alternative outlets to ease their frustrations and anxieties. In order to broadly survey the genre of the past two decades, I focus on three consistently popular character tropes in Hollywood comedies: slackers, office workers, and bromantic friendships. All the male characters discussed throughout the thesis are plagued by their innermost anxieties and desires that compromise their gendered identities. However, these films resort to a regressive understanding of masculinity and functions within the dominant heteronormative structures. This thesis demonstrates how Hollywood comedies present a contradictory and multifaceted image of modern masculinity.

Committee: Ofer Eliaz (Committee Chair) Subjects: Film Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, East Asian Languages and Literatures

This dissertation is a revisionist study examining the production and consumption of comedy film--a genre that has suffered from relative critical and theoretical neglect in film studies--in a culturally understudied period from 1949 to 1966 in the People's Republic of China. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, it scrutinizes the ideological, artistic, and industrial contexts as well as the distinctive textures of Chinese comedy films produced in the so-called "Seventeen Years" period (1949-1966). Taking comedy film as a contested site where different ideologies, traditions, and practices collide and negotiate, I go beyond the current canon of Chinese film studies and unearth forgotten films and talents to retrieve the heterogeneity of Chinese cinema. The varieties of comedy examined--mostly notably the contemporary social satires in the mid-1950s, the so-called "eulogistic comedies," and comedian-centered comedies in dialect and period comedies, as well as lighthearted comedies of the late 1950s and the early 1960s--problematize issues of genre, modernity, nation, gender, class, sublimity, and everyday life in light of the "culture of laughter" (Bakhtin) within a heavily politicized national cinema. Situating my study in the current scholarship of comedy and Chinese cinema, Chapter 1 historicizes the genre of comedy and provides an overview of its definitions in both Western cinema and Chinese cultural criticism. Using Unfinished Comedy--a 1957 satire banned before its completion--as a starting point, Chapter 2 revisits the crisis of the genre in the early years of the PRC and examines the tensions between artistic autonomy and the control of the authorities through a case study of the director Lu Ban. Chapter 3 looks into the mechanism of how ideal social relations were imagined and articulated in eulogistic comedy. Chapter 4 focuses on dialect comedies and film adaptations of folk comedies across regional divisions, which engage a complex dialogue between the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kirk Denton (Advisor); Mark Bender (Committee Member); J. Ronald Green (Committee Member); Patricia Sieber (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Asian Literature; Mass Media; Motion Pictures

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2009, Communication

This study performs an analysis on the motion picture In & Out, and its representation of hegemonic ideologies with regards to homosexuality. Through a deconstruction of the main character, Howard, and his coming out, it is determined that the film inadvertently perpetuates most traditional positive descriptors of homosexuality, and challenges most traditional negative descriptors. Although the film paints a picture of homosexuality as good and acceptable, it does so while still maintaining heteronormativity.

Committee: Mary Triece PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Communication