Shane literature...help needed

[southernsoul]

I'm thinking about writing my dissertation on Shane, haven't managed to narrow my area of interest yet, but before I start really focussing on it I wondered if anyone knew of any good books about any of Shane's films/shane himself, or any that reference his work. I'm open to any suggestions as I've found very little reading on his work...and I can't really write my final essay using nothing but tinterweb resources!

thanks in advance!! ;D

[Gareth]

you'd maybe be better looking at Shane, Mike Leigh and Alan Clarke,

Theres a huge Alan Clarke documentary in the firm DVD, and Mike Leigh goes into huge detail of his method of directing on the meantime DVD and the extras on this is england give a good insight into shanes process

I did mine last year but if I could do my dissertation again I'd look at these three directors use of improvisation and workshops to develop/ create the scripts

[stokerw]

it is indeed very difficult to find any lit on Shane. I found that by going to the bfi and trawling through the archives of sight and sound and other journals, you can find articles on his work. However, these tend to be reviews only a page or a couple on the films and they arent academic pieces-the trouble is that it is only recently that his work is being considred for academic discussion threefore nothing has been published yet....in time it will, but for now it is a pain in the arse, as I have discovered. The problem that i have had with my 'masculinity in the films of sm' diss. has been getting bogged down deep in the sociology section of the library plodding rather aimlessly though trying to get to grips with exactly what 'masculinity' means and going slowly off track.....so my advice to you is to try and keep sight of your title and just because there isnt academic writing on shanes films in particular, dont dive straight into another field of academia just to try and justify it as a topic...if you know what i mean..?!probably not..what i mean to say is i know how you feel!
... and garethbowler, just out of interest, what did you do your diss on?
w

[Gareth]

might aswell just give you the summary, It was a complete pile of shit but got a 63 because I new the principles inside out, I havent actually looked at this since I sent it off might read the whole thing now actually but it seems to be a complete pile of bollocks from looking back at the summary!

This study analyses three elements of narrative; character, theme and structure through the principles of Aristotle, Robert McKee, Phillip Parker. The motion picture ‘Chinatown’ is used to explore the elements when in practice.
The study finds Robert McKee’s work to be the most thorough and Theme to be the strongest element of the three analysed.
It is concluded that the thread that runs through Robert McKee’s principles is positives/negatives and that it’s these aspects that are most important when building a screenplay, Transitions being the most raw form of expressing these.

anyway southernsoul if you want me to email it you pm me, its shit but it'd at least make formatting easy for you!

[joan]

I also encountered problems while writing my dissertation, I used lots of the reviews from various publications. Also there are snippits in some books. If you would like me to email you my bibliography I would be more than happy too. Just let me know.

[stumpster]

hey i also doing an essay on Shane for my media coursework and i haven't got many books relating to him but i have found a few magazines that i got off ebay number one is April 21-27 2007 edition of the times magazine called the knowledge the second magazine is from the Saturday April 21st 2007 edition of the guardian's guide and both of these magazine have interviews that you can tie back to social realism which is what im looking at and sub cultures.

[stokerw]

hey,
'garethbowler', would there be any chance you could email me your diss or whatever you are willing to divulge?!that would be ace...as you say, it would be great to see the format and sructure that you have adopted even thuought the subject matter is quite different...
and joan, thats very kind of you to offer your bib too- would you mind winging that my way too!? anything would be useful to me at this point...brilliant.
my address is [e-mail]
thanks a mil

[PatrickCoyle]

Good luck with it, stoker. If there isn't much academic writing on Shane's stuff, and you write a tremendous dissertation, doesn't that become like the primary academic piece on Shane's films? I don't know how it works, I can't stand academic writing. The bastard of it is that it comes a lot easier to me than does screenwriting (I think because the deadlines aren't self-imposed, and because I don't give a shit about essays so I just write them whereas with scripts I umm and ahh over everything).

[stokerw]

hey gareth, thanks for the emailed diss (soz about the delay!)
joan, sorry to be a pain, but is there any chance you could email me your bibliography?that wuld be super.
cheers

[anonlytwin]

there are loads of bits and bobs on shane, mainly in accompaniment to work on other films, and mainly with regard to his earlier films- search out essays on masculinity in modern social realism and he'll crop up all over the place... (but you could also search out old sight and sound articles on him as well, they're always useful... as are the many interviews you will find on the tinternet.. as are his film commentary's and such like...) but yep, actual criticism on shane is at an early stage, but its there

[southernsoul]

Blimey I've only just spotted that this thread came back to life! Thanks to all that replied, I ended up writing about Mathieu Kassovitz's representation of the French banlieue (translates as suburbs but refers to ghetto/estates) in 'La Haine' as I fookin love that film and you can't underestimate how important that is when you have to spend hundreds of hours researching!

I considered tackling the theme of social realism in Shane's work and relating to a few other Brits' work, but I would've been giving myself far too much work as there really is nothing about Shane.

As you said Patrick, if Stoker did write his dissertation on the subject he mentioned he probably would become the most prolific writer on Shane's work. I've seen a few dissertations/thesis' available as vital academic work. If he manages it he'll have succeeded where I failed!

[jill]

I sincerely hope I haven't got this wrong, but I think Anonlytwin is writing a PhD which-if not exclusively about Shane certainly-deals with his work in some depth. So hopefully there'll be a good book in the not too distant future.

[anonlytwin]

aw shucks- good memory Jill! even my supervisors forgot i was writing a thesis! but i sure am. just handed in a 50,000 word mphil dissertation in at glasgow uni and roughly about half of that is on shane's films... the full blown phd is going to be an extension of this work and i'll get there eventually.... i will hopefully be publishing the mphil as an article in a journal some time in the next year (depending on how good the powers that be deem it to be). the final mphil title was (wank wank) "a subversion of sympathy: uses of laughter in British social realism", which to cut a very boring story short is all about how directors like meadows, oldman and- in his later work- loach have employed laughter to discuss degrees of suffering in working class britain... the thesis is essentially about audience positioning (how directors like meadows, use laughter to create a portrayal of working class life that doesn't patronise the subject but rather produces a sense of belonging (... camarderie/community... call it what you want) between the subject and the audience)..... for me, this emergence of laughter is one of the most significant developments in recent british social realism (a means through which social realism has learnt to stop patronising its working class subject) and shane is one of the most significant exponents of this approach

anyway, ta for remembering Jill x

[kayedawes]

Hi anonlytwin,

I'm a newbie to the site! I'm in the process of doing research for my dissertation (An exploration of englishness, place and identity through Meadows' films) and just noticed your post above. Has this been published yet? If so could you give me the details as to where as I am really interested in reading it!

Thanks!

[jill]

Hi Kaye,

Welcome to the forum. I just sent you a pm. If Anonlytwin does still occasionally lurk (Hi Stuart!), hopefully he'll reply!