IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

In History, film can be used as a primary source – that is a source created in the time period in which we wish to study. A film is a creative document that is of its time in the same way that a government source, a newspaper, or a piece of literature are of theirs. As such, even if a film is set in a distant past or a nebulous future, it tells us about the larger context in which it was made. In feature films particularly, we can discern social attitudes to the standard notions of gender, class, and race, but also more hidden attitudes to crime, divorce, aggression, war, the nation, foreigners. This is because attitudes and perceptions conveyed in feature films are much more unconscious than in other constructed films such as documentaries. Feature films are also meant to be consumed immediately rather than held up for prosperity or a future audience. In this way, they are very much like newspapers, though less frequent produced. Like newspapers, films can be accurately and specifically dated and therefore can be studied over time to look for larger and longer cultural patterns in a specific historical period. This paper will examine examples of how to look at film as a primary historical source more generally by discussing famous films that can be seen in different ways. I do this in the classroom by discussing what students think of a famous film, such as Forrest Gump, but I have also looked at famous films in new ways for research purposes. For example, during a conference presentation on British war films and the rise of the companionate marriage in post-war Britian, there was discussion about whether or not The African Queen (1952) was a ‘war’ film, or indeed ‘British’. In some ways this is less relevant, but it does show the limiting nature of the way some people view film as a source. It is this combination of teaching and research that make this conference one which I should like to attend and present.