Dr Noel Brown, Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication, is celebrating the publication of his latest book, The Children’s Film: Genre, Nation and Narrative.
Published by Columbia University Press, it is the first book-length examination of children’s film as a genre, and aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject, examining its recurrent themes and ideologies and common narrative and stylistic principles.
As well as discussing the films produced by Hollywood studios such as Disney and Pixar, the book engages with a wide range of international films from countries such as Britain, France, Russia, China and India.
The book is nominated for The Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and it has been described by Professor Ian Wojcik-Andrews of Eastern Michigan University as ‘a must-read for scholars of children’s cinema and film’.
The book is also the subject of a recent feature interview by Susan Raab of New Books Network. In the interview, which can be heard or downloaded as a podcast here, Noel discusses issues such as the unprecedented current popularity of children’s films amongst adults, changing socio-cultural representations of children and family, the uses of children’s film as a form of state propaganda, and how post-1980s trends of globalisation and neo-liberal economics have re-shaped the genre.