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 [log in to unmask] ---- Learn to speak like a film/TV professor! Listen to the ScreenLex podcast: http://www.screenlex.org