Children in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock (2014) edited by Debbie Olson

editor	Debbie Olson
publisher	Palgrave Macmillan (2014)
	ISBN 9781137475541
book-88593 (add your rating)

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Synopsis

Weaving together film theory, cultural studies, and the growing field of children's studies, this collection examines Hitchcock's use of children in his films. Many of the children and youth that appear in Hitchcock films are background or minor characters, yet they often hold special importance. From The Young and Innocent (1931), Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Strangers on a Train (1951) to The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964), among others, children and youth perform both innocence and knowingness within Hitchcock's complex cinematic texts. Though the child often plays a small part in Hitchcock's films, their significance - symbolically, theoretically, and philosophically - offers a unique opportunity to illuminate and interrogate the child presence within the cinematic complexity of Hitchcock's films.

Contents

1. Alfred Hitchcock's Missing Children: Genre, Auteurship, and Audience Address — by Noel Brown
2. "The Future's Not Ours to See": How Children and Young Adults Reflect the Anxiety of Lost Innocence in Alfred Hitchcock's American Movies — by Jason T. McEntee
3. The Child Who Knew Too Much: Liminality in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934, 1956) — by D. Elizabeth Ramsey
4. No Laughing Matter: Imperiling Kids and Country in Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage (1936) — by Peter W. Lee
5. "If You Rip the Fronts Off Houses": Killing Innocence in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) — by Markus P. J. Bohlmann and Sean Moreland
6. Daddy's Girl: The Knowing Innocent in Strangers on a Train (1951) — by Brian Walter
7. Renegotiating Romanticism and the All-American Boy Child: Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955) — by Adrian Schober
8. Between Knowingness and Innocence: Child Ciphers in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) and The Birds (1963) — by Fran Pheasant-Kelly
9. The Child Hero in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) — by Samantha Lay
10. "It's the End of the World!": The Influence of The Birds on the Evil Child Film — by Craig Martin
11. Psycho without a Cause: Norman Bates and Juvenile Delinquency Cinema — by J. Wetmore, Jr.
12. Alfred Hitchcock's Stylized Capture of Postadolescent Fatheads — by William Thomas McBride