Dear Screen-L:





The University of California Press  is pleased to announce the publication of:



Uncanny Bodies: The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror Genre



Robert Spadoni  is Assistant Professor in the English Department at 

Case Western Reserve University.



http://go.ucpress.edu/Spadoni



"_Uncanny Bodies_ is a pleasure to read. I know of no other work that 

has looked  as closely at early sound and horror films to make a 

persuasive argument about horror's relation to the beginnings of 

sound film. Given the voluminous literature on Universal horror 

films, Spadoni presents some very original ideas and frames his 

inquiry in an interesting way."-Jan-Christopher Horak, editor of 

_Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919-1945_



In 1931 Universal Pictures released _Dracula _and _Frankenstein, _two 

films that inaugurated the horror genre in Hollywood cinema. These 

films appeared directly on the heels of Hollywood's transition to 

sound film. _Uncanny Bodies _argues that the coming of sound inspired 

more in these massively influential horror movies than screams, 

creaking doors, and howling wolves. A close examination of the 

historical reception of films of the transition period reveals that 

sound films could seem to their earliest viewers unreal and ghostly. 

By comparing this audience impression to the first sound horror 

films, Robert Spadoni makes a case for understanding film viewing as 

a force that can powerfully shape both the minutest aspects of 

individual films and the broadest sweep of film production trends, 

and for seeing aftereffects of the temporary weirdness of sound film 

deeply etched in the basic character of one of our most enduring film 

genres.



Full information about the book, including the table of contents, is 

available online: http://go.ucpress.edu/Spadoni





-- 

Lolita Guevarra

Electronic Marketing Coordinator

University of California Press

Tel. 510.643.4738 | Fax 510.643.7127

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