News
Leo Braudy is among America’s leading cultural historians and film critics. Currently University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature at the University of Southern California, he frequently speaks on issues of war and masculinity, celebrity and fame, and the film and culture of the 1950s.
Recent Interviews:
“The Geography of Buzz: Art, Culture and the Social Milieu in Los Angeles and New York,”
April 15, 2009–Commentator and chair of a discussion of the correlation between geography and media buzz. You can read about the event at the University of Southern California’s news website.
“War and Masculinity: Forever Entwined?”
April 14, 2009–interview on The Pendulum Effect podcast, hosted by Justin Trottier. Listen to the podcast and read about it on EqualismActivism.com, or on the Media page.
Translations:
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From Chivalry to Terrorism has just been issued in Chinese by The Oriental Press (Beijing) and in Spanish by Oceano (Mexico City). |  |
New Edition:
The 7th edition of Film Theory and Criticism has just been released by Oxford University Press and is available for purchase from Amazon. The new edition features expanded introductions and a new section on “Digitization and Globalization,” which incorporates essays on recent developments in technology and world cinema.
Back in print:
Figueroa Press has republished Native Informant: Essays on Film, Fiction, and Popular Culture in its scholarly reprints series. The press also reissued The Plot of Time: Narrative Form in Hume, Fielding, and Gibbon with a new forward by Hayden White in 2003. Both books can be ordered through their website, or at Amazon.com.
Recent events:
SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT: Raymond Chandler, 50 Years Later
March 25, 2009, 7:30pm
USC University Club
Join leading LA noir experts for a lively discussion of Raymond Chandler’s novels, films, and the future he foretold. Fifty years after his death, how have his perceptions and his portrayal of the City of Angels endured? Moderator: Judith Freeman, author of The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved. Speakers: Leo Braudy, USC Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature and University Professor; Denise Hamilton, author of the Eve Diamond mystery series; and Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times film critic.
This event is free and open to the public. On-campus parking $8 through Gate3 on Figueroa Street.
RSVP online: www.regonline.com/USCCollegeChandler50 or call (213)740-1349
| ALOUD AT CENTRAL LIBRARY Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 7 pm A conversation with screenwriter Millard Kaufman, whose debut novel, Bowl of Cherries, was published last year by McSweeney’s. |
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LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
Saturday, April 29, 2008, 10:30 am
Moderator, A History of Violence, featuring David A. Bell, Mark Kurlansky, Scott Martelle, and Andrew Nagorski. Flash video provided by C-SPAN’s BookTV at the link above.
REAL TO REEL: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WORLD WAR II
Friday, April 11, 2008, 8:30 am – 10:30 am
Moderator, Hollywood Goes to War: The Battle of San Pietro and the Memphis Belle. A conversation featuring Pulitzer-prize winning author Rick Atkinson and producer Catherine Wyler, daughter of William Wyler.
Recent & Forthcoming Projects:
- “Walt Whitman and Photography,” for “click! photography changes everything,” a Smithsonian Photography Initiative (SPI) project, Marvin Heiferman, curator.
- “Leo Braudy’s Favorite Moments of Horror vs. Terror in Film,” The Book of Lists: Horror, eds. Amy Wallace, Del Howison, and Scott Bradley. HarperCollins, October 2008.
- Preface to E.F. Kitchen, Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages. Book of photographs of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Forthcoming.
- “Secular Anointings: Fame, Celebrity, and Charisma in the First century of Mass Culture.” In Charisma, eds. Edward Berenson and Eva Giloi. New York: Berghan, forthcoming.
- “From Subjects to Citizens.” In War in the Gender Zone, ed. Drew Gilpin Faust, University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming.
- “Cultures and Communities” In The Blackwell’s Guide to Los Angeles, eds. William Deverell and Gregory Hise. Oxford: Blackwell’s, forthcoming.