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The films of John Hughes (1950-2009) have enjoyed popular and critical success alike, from his first scripts in the early 1980s through to his celebrated work later in the decade and into the 1990s. While Hughes is best remembered for his stories about teenagers, such as Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), almost all of his films deal with comical conflicts within everyday American families. He directed eight films and wrote over thirty in a career spanning a quarter of a century, and is fondly remembered for influencing American perceptions of - and appreciation for - the daily lives of (primarily) common citizens.
This wide-ranging collection examines the films of John Hughes from diverse angles, considering how he depicted young characters, how he revealed the humour of family life, and how his films subtly critiqued social issues such as class, race, gender, education and domestic relationships.
Timothy Shary is a professor of communications at Eastern Florida State College.
Frances Smith is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sussex.
List of contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Film and Television Work by John Hughes
1. Introduction - Timothy Shary and Frances Smith
Part I: Hughes in the Industry2. John Hughes as Auteur: History, Hagiography, Historiography - Elissa H. Nelson
3. "Becoming John Hughes": Regional Production, Hyphenate Filmmaking, and Independence Within Hollywood - Yannis Tzioumakis
4.
Ferris Bueller vs.
Parker Lewis: "Adapting"
Ferris Bueller's Day Off for Television - Stephen Tropiano
Part II: Reconsidering Youth5. "Life moves pretty fast": Mobility, Power, and Aesthetics in John Hughes's Teen Films - Christina G. Petersen
6. "When Cameron Was in Egypt's Land": The Queer Child of Neglect in John Hughes's Films - Barbara Jane Brickman
7. We Need to Talk about Kevin McCallister: John Hughes's Careless Parents and Abandoned Children - Melissa Oliver-Powell
Part III: Family and Fatherhood8. Brand Name Vision: Props in the Films of John Hughes - Leah R. Shafer
9. Domesticating the Comedian: Comic Performance, Narrative, and the Family in John Hughes's 1980s Comedian Films - Holly Chard
10. Fatherhood and the Failures of Paternal Authority in the Films of John Hughes - Alice Leppert
Part IV: Contested Identities11. Bizarre Love Triangle: Frankensteinian Masculinities in
Weird Science - Andrew Scahill
12. "You look good wearing my future:" Social Class and Individualism in the 1980s Teen Films of John Hughes - Robert C. Bulman
13. The Unbearable Whiteness of Being in a John Hughes Movie - Frances Smith
Bibliography
Appendix: Other Films and Television Shows Cited in this Collection
Index
About the author
Timothy Shary is the author of Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen (Wallflower, 2005) and Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in American Cinema Since 1980 (Texas, 2014). He teaches at Eastern Florida State College.Frances Smith is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sussex. She is the author of 'Rethinking the Hollywood Teen Movie' (Edinburgh University Press, 2017), which combines close textual analysis and critical theory to argue that the genre possesses a distinct narrative and aesthetic.
