Aaron Taylor

Bio: Aaron Taylor is an academic researcher from University of Lethbridge. The author has contributed to research in topics: Performative utterance & Narrative. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 14 publications receiving 83 citations. Previous affiliations of Aaron Taylor include Brock University.

Avengers dissemble! Transmedia superhero franchises and cultic management

Abstract: Sherpa Romeo yellow journal. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance following peer review.

Theorizing film acting

Abstract: Introduction: Acting, Casually and Theoretically Speaking, Aaron Taylor I. Aesthetics: Understanding and Interpreting Film Acting 1. Acting Matters: Noting Performance in Three Films, Brenda Austin-Smith 2. Living Meaning: The Fluency of Film Performance, Andrew Klevan 3. Play-Acting: A Theory of Comedic Performance, Alex Clayton 4. Performed Performance and The Man Who Knew Too Much, Murray Pomerance 5. Brando Sings! The Invincible Star Persona, George Toles II. Reception: Film Acting, Audiences and Communities 6. "Look at Me!": A Phenomenology of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Joerg Sternagel 7. Is Acting a Form of Simulation or Being? Acting and Mirror Neurons, William Brown 8. The Bond That Unbinds By Binding: Acting Mythology and the Film Community, Kevin Esch 9. From Being to Acting: Performance in Cult Cinema, Ernest Mathijs 10. Acting and Performance in Home Movies and Amateur Films, Liz Czach III. Culture: Film History, Industry and the Vicissitudes of Star Acting 11. Story and Show: The Basic Contradiction of Film Star Acting, Paul McDonald 12. The Screen Actor's "First Self" and "Second Self": John Wayne and Coquelin's Acting Theory, Sharon Marie Carnicke 13. Acting Like a Star: Florence Turner, Picture Personality, Charlie Keil 14. Niche Stars and Acting "Gay," Christine Holmlund IV. Apparatus: Technology, Film Form and the Actor 15. What Becomes of the Camera in the World on Film? William Rothman 16. Sonic Bodies: Listening as Acting, Jennifer M. Barker 17. Dance of the UEbermarionettes: Toward a Contemporary Screen Actor Training, Sean Aita 18. Articulating Digital Stardom, Barry King

Twilight of the idols: performance, melodramatic villainy and Sunset Boulevard

Abstract: Sherpa Romeo yellow journal. This is a pre-print version of an article accepted for publication in The Journal of Film and Video.

Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters

Abstract: Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Judith Halberstam. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. $15.95 pbk. Judith Halberstam's Skin Shows discusses the historical changes the figure of the monster has undergone in the development of the Gothic. Ranging from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs, Halberstam's analysis focuses primarily on the dichotomy between surface and depth or inside and outside, which the monster "embodies" through the visible layer of its skin and the secret depths underneath. Based on this central trope, as well as the etymology of the word "monster" itself, Halberstam suggests that Gothic monsters are overdetermined signifiers, figures of excess that organize the interplay of several discourses, inviting the reader to suppress some strands of discourse while foregrounding others. Gothic monsters, by making the very process of interpretation visible, reveal more about the interpreter than about themselves. They expose the "stitches," the artifice, the seams of what our culture wants us to perceive as whole, organic, and seamless. Ultimately, they always mean too much, and, therefore, too little. Based on this "incitement to discourse," as Foucault would call it, the Gothic monster provides the crucial trope for Gothic discursivity. On the one hand, it embodies the excessive Gothic text itself-a reading that Halberstam inherits from Chris Baldick and, to some degree, from Eve Sedgwick. On the other hand, it stands for the interaction of author, text, and audience, drawing our attention to the ambivalent pleasure that we as readers derive from what's cheap, sensational, and tawdry, even though we really should know better. The paranoia, which readers experience when faced with the double-play of deviance/normality within the Gothic text, also implicates the author. Gothic authors must ask themselves what it means to produce a text that demonstrably falls below the standard of the accepted literary norm, which Halberstam equates largely with the well-mannered and well-made realist novel of the late 19th century. Thus exposing the rhetorical devices of ideology in the making, the figure of the Gothic monster is a textual machine or discursive technology that produces ideology with one hand while deconstructing it with the other. And this is exactly the position from which Halberstam sets out to argue for a re-evaluation of the Gothic. If the Gothic isn't itself self-conscious, then at least it will produce a reader who is. And this alert and therefore uneasy reader will be able to resist succumbing to the superimposition of fear and prejudice that the Gothic is so good at. While she is honestly acknowledging the rotten reputation of the Gothic, Halberstam traces its politically more suspect characteristics throughout some crucial changes and transformations of its history. A chapter on Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray deals with homophobia, one on Stoker's Dracula with xenophobia and specifically with anti-Semitism, others-those on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, Hitchcock's The Birds, and Demme's The Silence of the Lambs-raise the problem of misogyny. …

Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero: Metaphors, Narratives, and Geopolitics

Abstract: Nationalist superheroes-such as Captain America, Captain Canuck, and Union Jack-often signify the "nation-state" for readers, but how do these characters and comic books address issues of multiculturalism and geopolitical order? In his engaging book Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero, geographer Jason Dittmer traces the evolution of the comic book genre as it adapted to new national audiences. He argues that these iconic superheroes contribute to our contemporary understandings of national identity, the righteous use of power, and the role of the United States, Canada, and Britain in the world. Tracing the nationalist superhero genre from its World War II origins to contemporary manifestations throughout the world, Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero analyzes nearly one thousand comic books and audience responses to those books. Dittmer also interviews key comic book writers from Stan Lee and J. M. DeMatteis to Steve Englehart and Paul Cornell. At a time when popular culture is saturated with superheroes and their exploits, Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero highlights the unique relationship between popular culture and international relations. Copyright © 2013 by Temple University. All rights reserved.