Screening Controversial Cinema

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-53020-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 666 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Screening Cinema

This collection offers a wide-ranging exploration of controversial cinema across film history, examining how and why certain films become flashpoints for public debate, regulation, and cultural conflict.

Bringing together over fifty case studies from different periods, national contexts, and genres, the book moves beyond a simple catalogue of scandalous texts to show how controversy emerges through the interaction of films, audiences, institutions, and media discourse. From early censorship battles to contemporary debates around representation, identity, and harm, the volume demonstrates that controversy is not fixed but shaped by shifting social values, political agendas, and technological change. While familiar concerns—sex, violence, religion, and morality—remain central, the collection expands the field to include questions of ideology, race, gender, disability, and ethics.

Designed as a companion to film screenings, each chapter situates its case study within its broader historical and cultural context, encouraging readers to engage critically with challenging material and arguing that controversial cinema provides a powerful lens through which to understand the relationship between film and society. Together the chapters provide a unique resource for a variety of film studies courses.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

McKenna, Mark

Henry, Claire

Über Autor(innen)

Mark McKenna teaches creative and cultural industries at the University of Sheffield, and his work explores these industries from a range of perspectives. He is the author of several books including Nasty Business: The Marketing and Distribution of the Video Nasties (2020), Snuff (2022), Big Wednesday (2024) and Levelling Up the Screen Industries? (2025) and co-editor of Horror Franchise Cinema (2021).

Claire Henry is an Associate Professor in Screen at Flinders University and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (2025-2028). She is the author of Revisionist Rape-Revenge: Redefining a Film Genre (2014) and Eraserhead (2023), and co-author of Screening the Posthuman (2023). Over the past twenty years, she has taught film and media studies at universities in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.