Miriam Hansen
Encyclopedia
Miriam Hansen was a film historian who made important contributions to the study of early cinema and mass culture.
, Hansen received a doctorate in American literature from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt
. She worked at Yale University
and Rutgers before moving to the University of Chicago
, where she served as Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at the time of her death. She founded the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at that university.
She is most known for her book Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film. According to Daniel Morgan of the University of Pittsburgh
, "She was in the first generation of scholars to see film viewing as a historically defined and shaped activity . . . And also to understand that that meant we had to look at older films through the lens of the viewers they were intended for.” She saw fans of Rudolph Valentino
, for instance, as possibly forming an alternative public sphere
to express their desires. Hansen was also a scholar of the Frankfurt school
and a prominent interpreter of the theories of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin
, and Siegfried Kracauer
on mass culture. She focused in particular on cinema as a mode of modernism
, coining the term "vernacular modernism" to explain how even the classical Hollywood cinema
could be a popular form of modernism that served many cultures as a horizon for coming to grips with modernity
. According to fellow University of Chicago professor Tom Gunning, she "provided the best of models for film studies at the moment that it moved from its pioneering focus on Grand Theory to a broader sense of a field that must include archival research, political perspectives, aesthetic awareness and theoretical ambition."
She died of cancer on 5 February 2011 in Chicago
at the age of 61.
Career
Born Miriam Bratu to Jewish parents in Offenbach, GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Hansen received a doctorate in American literature from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
. She worked at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Rutgers before moving to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where she served as Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at the time of her death. She founded the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at that university.
She is most known for her book Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film. According to Daniel Morgan of the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, "She was in the first generation of scholars to see film viewing as a historically defined and shaped activity . . . And also to understand that that meant we had to look at older films through the lens of the viewers they were intended for.” She saw fans of Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
, for instance, as possibly forming an alternative public sphere
Public sphere
The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...
to express their desires. Hansen was also a scholar of the Frankfurt school
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
and a prominent interpreter of the theories of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
, and Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer was a German-Jewish writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist...
on mass culture. She focused in particular on cinema as a mode of modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, coining the term "vernacular modernism" to explain how even the classical Hollywood cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema or the classical Hollywood narrative, are terms used in film history which designates both a visual and sound style for making motion pictures and a mode of production used in the American film industry between roughly the 1910s and the early 1960s.Classical style is...
could be a popular form of modernism that served many cultures as a horizon for coming to grips with modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
. According to fellow University of Chicago professor Tom Gunning, she "provided the best of models for film studies at the moment that it moved from its pioneering focus on Grand Theory to a broader sense of a field that must include archival research, political perspectives, aesthetic awareness and theoretical ambition."
She died of cancer on 5 February 2011 in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
at the age of 61.