Accidental Heroes and Gifted Amateurs: Hitchcock and Ideology

Toby Miller, Noel King

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (Book)Researchpeer-review

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationA Companion to Alfred Hitchcock
PublisherWiley-Blackwell
Pages425-451
Number of pages27
ISBN (Print)9781405185387
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Sept 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Ernest Mandel's compelling socio-historical account of fiction-period between two World Wars
  • Espionage fiction, taking off in decade-following L'affaire Dreyfus, in late-nineteenth century France
  • Hitchcock's British espionage-movies, managed to be both of their time and beyond it
  • Hitchcock's distaste for urban life-visually thematized in panic of music-hall crowd
  • Hitchcock's gift in The 39 Steps-creating a bricolage, denigrating masses
  • Hitchcock's MacGuffins, narrative alibis-quests, getting of knowledge matters more than knowledge itself
  • Hitchcock's political thinking from his texts-shifting relations among novels
  • Hitchcock, not prone to constative remarks-about class struggle, the state or imperialism
  • Ideology, accidental heroes and gifted amateurs-Hitchcock and ideology
  • Iris's extraordinary self-confidence-casual imperialism, "the Union Jack fluttering overhead"

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