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Papers by Johanna Schmertz
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
Zelda Sears’ 1924 Broadway play The Clinging Vine mocked male stereotypes of women. In the play, ... more Zelda Sears’ 1924 Broadway play The Clinging Vine mocked male stereotypes of women. In the play, businesswoman heroine Antoinette (A.B.) is both chagrined and amused to find she has become a man magnet after she adopts an ultra-feminine “clinging vine” persona in order to test its effects. But when the play was adapted for film in 1926, with actress Leatrice Joy playing the lead role in a very short haircut, “Antoinette” disappears into her initials (A.B.), and her pre-transformation character appears masculine in both dress and demeanor. The character’s masculinity is accentuated by the silent film medium, as there is no female voice emerging from A.B. to counter her masculine impression. The result that in the film version, A.B.’s feminine transformation reads more like drag queen than clinging vine—a performative, hyper-feminine camouflage of a naturalized masculinity. Archival research into Joy’s career, coupled with interview transcripts and notes from Kevin Brownlow’s Hollywoo...
Journal of Teaching Writing, 2008
Gender and Education, 2011
English Journal, 2016
The skill of "close reading"-a critical practice by which small details of a work are r... more The skill of "close reading"-a critical practice by which small details of a work are revealed to embody something of the text's larger whole-is a key developmental objective for English teachers and an important element of most definitions of critical reading. To prompt close readings of literary texts, we often begin with narrative film. This, I think, is because film is so immediately accessible to students because it is a form of storytelling that reaches them directly through the sense of sound and sight and also because it is complex and multimodal, drawing as it does on the use of sound, words, shapes, and images. (The multiple "tracks" of film represent multiple literacies, literacies that can be separated and combined in ways that illuminate the various modes of expression and communication in which humans engage.)David L. Bruce has used film to generate innovative approaches to close reading, particularly through the tool of storyboards-a planning t...
The Classroom as Archive, 2019
The Archive As Classroom https://ccdigitalpress.org/book/archive-as-classroom/archive2.html 2/37
While students read a novel, they imagine the characters, setting, and action taking place. This ... more While students read a novel, they imagine the characters, setting, and action taking place. This lesson allows students to use their imaginations in the form of a storyboard. Students first read a book that has a complementary film adaptation. They then learn about adaptation by writing short paragraphs and adapting them for film using storyboards. Once they have evaluated the adaptations, the students will create their visions of the books and compare them to the film. http://bit.ly/1TR4lQa
Scholars who have integrated the tools of narrative analysis into performance studies have conclu... more Scholars who have integrated the tools of narrative analysis into performance studies have concluded that identity is constructed through storytelling performances (e.g. Bruner 1990; Wortham 2001; Reissman 2000). In the fields of literacy and composition studies, the idea that story and performance create who we are is assumed more than it is articulated or explored. It does manifest, however, in our longstanding belief in the importance of literacy narratives as pedagogical classroom tools.
Women and Screen Cultures is a series of experimental digital books aimed to promote research and... more Women and Screen Cultures is a series of experimental digital books aimed to promote research and knowledge on the contribution of women to the cultural history of screen media. Published by the Department of the Arts at the University of Bologna, it is issued under the conditions of both open publishing and blind peer review. It will host collections, monographs, translations of open source archive materials, illustrated volumes, transcripts of conferences, and more. Proposals are welcomed for both disciplinary and multi-disciplinary contributions in the fields of film history and theory, television and media studies, visual studies, photography and new media. Edited by: Monica Dall'Asta, Victoria Duckett, Lucia Tralli ISBN 9788898010103 2013. Published by the Department of Arts, University of Bologna in association with the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and Women and Film History International Graphic design: Lucia Tralli
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Pedagogy: Critical Approaches To Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 2006
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
Zelda Sears’ 1924 Broadway play The Clinging Vine mocked male stereotypes of women. In the play, ... more Zelda Sears’ 1924 Broadway play The Clinging Vine mocked male stereotypes of women. In the play, businesswoman heroine Antoinette (A.B.) is both chagrined and amused to find she has become a man magnet after she adopts an ultra-feminine “clinging vine” persona in order to test its effects. But when the play was adapted for film in 1926, with actress Leatrice Joy playing the lead role in a very short haircut, “Antoinette” disappears into her initials (A.B.), and her pre-transformation character appears masculine in both dress and demeanor. The character’s masculinity is accentuated by the silent film medium, as there is no female voice emerging from A.B. to counter her masculine impression. The result that in the film version, A.B.’s feminine transformation reads more like drag queen than clinging vine—a performative, hyper-feminine camouflage of a naturalized masculinity. Archival research into Joy’s career, coupled with interview transcripts and notes from Kevin Brownlow’s Hollywoo...
Journal of Teaching Writing, 2008
Gender and Education, 2011
English Journal, 2016
The skill of "close reading"-a critical practice by which small details of a work are r... more The skill of "close reading"-a critical practice by which small details of a work are revealed to embody something of the text's larger whole-is a key developmental objective for English teachers and an important element of most definitions of critical reading. To prompt close readings of literary texts, we often begin with narrative film. This, I think, is because film is so immediately accessible to students because it is a form of storytelling that reaches them directly through the sense of sound and sight and also because it is complex and multimodal, drawing as it does on the use of sound, words, shapes, and images. (The multiple "tracks" of film represent multiple literacies, literacies that can be separated and combined in ways that illuminate the various modes of expression and communication in which humans engage.)David L. Bruce has used film to generate innovative approaches to close reading, particularly through the tool of storyboards-a planning t...
The Classroom as Archive, 2019
The Archive As Classroom https://ccdigitalpress.org/book/archive-as-classroom/archive2.html 2/37
While students read a novel, they imagine the characters, setting, and action taking place. This ... more While students read a novel, they imagine the characters, setting, and action taking place. This lesson allows students to use their imaginations in the form of a storyboard. Students first read a book that has a complementary film adaptation. They then learn about adaptation by writing short paragraphs and adapting them for film using storyboards. Once they have evaluated the adaptations, the students will create their visions of the books and compare them to the film. http://bit.ly/1TR4lQa
Scholars who have integrated the tools of narrative analysis into performance studies have conclu... more Scholars who have integrated the tools of narrative analysis into performance studies have concluded that identity is constructed through storytelling performances (e.g. Bruner 1990; Wortham 2001; Reissman 2000). In the fields of literacy and composition studies, the idea that story and performance create who we are is assumed more than it is articulated or explored. It does manifest, however, in our longstanding belief in the importance of literacy narratives as pedagogical classroom tools.
Women and Screen Cultures is a series of experimental digital books aimed to promote research and... more Women and Screen Cultures is a series of experimental digital books aimed to promote research and knowledge on the contribution of women to the cultural history of screen media. Published by the Department of the Arts at the University of Bologna, it is issued under the conditions of both open publishing and blind peer review. It will host collections, monographs, translations of open source archive materials, illustrated volumes, transcripts of conferences, and more. Proposals are welcomed for both disciplinary and multi-disciplinary contributions in the fields of film history and theory, television and media studies, visual studies, photography and new media. Edited by: Monica Dall'Asta, Victoria Duckett, Lucia Tralli ISBN 9788898010103 2013. Published by the Department of Arts, University of Bologna in association with the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and Women and Film History International Graphic design: Lucia Tralli
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Pedagogy: Critical Approaches To Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 2006