Songs of Innocence and Experience: Romance in the Cinema of Frank Capra - Hardcover

Magdalena Grabias-Zurek

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 144384781X ISBN 13: 9781443847810

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013

Synopsis

Songs of Innocence and Experience: Romance in the Cinema of Frank Capra is a study of the director's chosen movies from the perspective of three types of comedies: paradisal, purgatorial and infernal, as assigned by Dante in his Divine Comedy. Magdalena Grabias-Zurek views Capra's films in two broader categories of "innocence" and "experience," where "innocence" represents Dantean paradisal level, and "experience" combines the levels of purgatory and inferno. Such a division constitutes the means to interpret Capra's filmic universe and to describe the ever-evolving directorial vision of Frank Capra. The main purpose of the book is to demonstrate how, in the light of the theory of literary romance as presented by Northrop Frye in his seminal works concerning the subject, the films of Frank Capra fit into the genre of romance. Romantic elements in Frank Capra's movies can be found in both "innocence" and "experience" categories and, hence, consequently in his paradisal, purgatorial and infernal comedies. However, in both categories, and all three comedy types, the romantic reality of each examined film is structured and developed in a different manner. The book offers an insight into Frank Capra's films and a complex process of creating his multidimensional romantic universe within them.

About this title

About the Author:

Magdalena Grabias-Zurek is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. She specialises in film studies, American studies, literary translation and music journalism. Her publications include a review of Janina Falkowska's book on Andrzej Wajda, "Wajda widziany przez ocean" (2009), a post-conference article, "Frank Capra's Bedford Falls as Axis Mundi" (2010), as well as numerous reviews of music releases, concerts and theatre shows.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 144384781X
• ISBN 13: 9781443847810
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 230