Mr Peter Kramer
| Job Title | Contact | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Lecturer |
P dot Kramer at uea dot ac dot uk
Tel: +44 (0)1603 59 3274 |
Registry And Council House 3.26 |
Biography
My teaching and research deal with American film history from the beginnings to the present, and with the global dimensions of Hollywood cinema, especially its relationship with Germany. My work concentrates on thematic currents and formal developments in mainstream American cinema and on the changing social, political, cultural and industrial contexts in which films are made and seen.
I have written extensively on silent cinema, stars and acting, Buster Keaton, the relationship between film and other media, Hollywood and the Germans, Audrey Hepburn, Disney and contemporary American cinema. I teach courses on film history, Stanley Kubrick and contemporary Hollywood.
Born in Germany in 1961, I studied at Cologne University in Germany and at the University of East Anglia. Before I returned to UEA as a lecturer in Film Studies in 1998, I taught American Studies at Keele University and Media Studies at Staffordshire University. I am a regular guest lecturer in the Film Studies department at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.
During the last ten years, I have been supervising PhD students from the UK, the Czech Republic and China. Their topics have ranged from contemporary Hollywood epics, recent American movies about the 60s, slasher films, the film careers of Saturday Night Live comedians and the films of Michael Mann to the circulation of Chaplin’s early comedies on small gauge formats in the UK, the relationship between Hollywood and Czechoslovakia after World War II and the distribution and reception of Hollywood family films in contemporary China. I have also worked with visiting PhD students from the Czech Republic, Spain, China and Turkey.
Across the last twenty years, I have presented more than eighty conference papers in the UK, continental Europe, North America and Australia and published over fifty journal essays and book chapters in the UK, the US, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Germany.
Together with Alan Lovell, I co-edited a collection of essays on film acting in the United States and Britain across the 20th century. It is entitled Screen Acting (Routledge, 1999). I have also co-edited, with Lee Grieveson, The Silent Cinema Reader (Routledge, 2004). Furthermore, jointly with Paul Willetts I co-authored a children’s book entitled American Film: An A-Z Guide (Franklin Watts, 2003). My most recent books are The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars (Wallflower, 2005), a volume on 2001: A Space Odyssey for the BFI Film Classics series (2010) and A Clockwork Orange (Palgrave, 2011).
My research projects for the next few years include a volume on Dr. Strangelove with the working title “Doomsday Visions: Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Post-War Hollywood”. Other possible future projects include books on Hollywood’s biggest hits since the late 1970s and on women in contemporary Hollywood, as well as a study of the relationship between Hollywood and the Germans from the beginnings to the present and a case study tentatively entitled “The Good German? Oskar Schindler and the Movies”.
Full Publication List (PDF 30 KB)
Key Research Interests
My main research interests in recent years include:
- Hollywood since the 1960s, with an emphasis on its biggest hits and hitmakers (notably George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Ronald Emmerich and James Cameron)
- women in contemporary Hollywood and Hollywood’s female audiences
- the career and films of Stanley Kubrick - Disney films and the Disney company
- Hollywood’s global dimensions - Hollywood and the Germans, including both the presence of Germans in Hollywood and the presence of Hollywood films in Germany
- Oskar Schindler and representations of the Holocaust
- stars ranging from Buster Keaton to Audrey Hepburn and Jodie Foster
- the relationship between Hollywood cinema and public debates about global issues (such as global warming and global justice)
Publications in press:
“Hollywood and Its Global Audiences: A Comparative Study of the Biggest Box Office Hits in the US and Outside the US Since the 1970s”, The New Cinema History: Approaches and Case Studies, ed. Richard Maltby, Daniel Biltereyst and Philippe Meers, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, in press
“The Good German? Oskar Schindler and the Movies, 1951-1993”, Stars of David: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema, ed. Murray Pomerance , Detroit: Wayne State University Press, in press
“Das Boot (The Boat, Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)”, The Cinema of Germany, ed. Joseph Garncarz, London: Wallflower Press, in press
Past Research Projects and Grants
| Project Title | Start Date | End Date | Funding Body | Project Members |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference | 2/3/2006 | 5/3/2006 | British Academy | N/A |
| The Films of Don Levy and Peter Whitehead | 8/7/2004 | 1/11/2004 | Screen East | Peter Kramer, Charles Barr |
| Media in Transition: globalisation and convergence (Conference) | 10/5/2002 | 17/5/2002 | British Academy | N/A |
| The new Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars | 14/7/2001 | 3/8/2001 | Arts and Humanities Research Council | N/A |
| Rethinking Disney: Private control and public dimensions (Conference) | 9/11/2000 | 12/11/2000 | British Academy | N/A |
| The new Hollywood: From Bonnie & Clyde to Star Wars | 27/7/2000 | 13/8/2000 | Arts and Humanities Research Council | N/A |
Teaching Interests
In 2010/11 I am teaching three undergraduate modules:
- Stanley Kubrick: Films in Context (level 3, semester 1)
- Hollywood and the World (level 2, semester 2)
- Film and Authorship (level 2, semester 2)
I also teach an MA module:
- The Big Picture: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (semester 1)
Article
Kramer, Peter (2011) 'Movies that make people sick': Audience Responses to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange in 1971/72. Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 8 (2). pp. 416-30. ISSN 17498716
Kramer, Peter (2009) 'Dear Mr. Kubrick': Audience Responses to 2001: A Space Odyssey in the Late 1960s. Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 6 (2). pp. 1-20. ISSN 17498716
Kramer, Peter (2009) ‘He’s very good at work not involving little creatures, you know’: Schindler’s List, E.T. and the Shape of Steven Spielberg's Career. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 7(1). pp. 23-32. ISSN 17400309
Kramer, Peter (2008) O (nad)casovosti satiry. Recepce filmu Dikator v zapadnim Nemecku v obdobi 1952-1973 (The (Un) Timeliness of Satire: The Reception of The Great Dictator in West Germany, 1952-1973). Iluminace, 20 (1). pp. 51-67. ISSN 0862397X
Kramer, Peter (2007) Battered Child: Buster Keaton's Stage Performance and Vaudeville Stardom in the Early 1900s. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 5 (3). pp. 253-67. ISSN 17400309
Kramer, Peter (2005) Karrierefrauen in Hollywood: Die (Dar) Stellung von Frauen im amerikanischen Kino. Sowi: Das Journal fur Geschichte, Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur, 3 (05). pp. 75-83. ISSN 09323244
Kramer, Peter (2004) The Many Faces of Holly Golightly: Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Hollywood. Film Studies, 5. pp. 58-65. ISSN 14690314
Kramer, Peter (2001) 'It's aimed at kids - the kid in everybody': George Lucas, Star Wars and Children's Entertainment. Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies. ISSN 14659166
Kramer, Peter (2000) Entering the Magic Kingdom: The Walt Disney Company, The Lion King and the Limitations of Criticism. Film Studies (2). pp. 44-50. ISSN 14690314
Kramer, Peter (1999) Star Wars. History Today , 49 (3). pp. 41-7. ISSN 00182753
Kramer, Peter (1998) Women First: Titanic (1997), Action-Adventure Films and Hollywood's Female Audience. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 18 (4). pp. 599-618. ISSN 0143-9685
Kramer, Peter (1997) A Slapstick Comedian at the Crossroads: Buster Keaton, the Theatre and the Movies 1916/17. Theatre History Studies (17). pp. 133-46. ISSN 07332033
Kramer, Peter (1989) Derailing the Honeymoon Express: Comicality and Narrative Closure in Buster Keaton’s The Blacksmith. The Velvet Light Trap, 23. pp. 101-116. ISSN 0149-1830
Kramer, Peter (1988) Vitagraph, Slapstick and Early Cinema. Screen, 29 (2). pp. 98-104. ISSN 00369543
Book Section
Kramer, Peter (2012) The Good German? Oskar Schindler and the Movies, 1951-1993. In: Hollywood's Chosen People: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema. Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media . Wayne State University Press, Detroit, pp. 125-40. ISBN 978-0814334829
Kramer, Peter (2012) Fighting the Evil Empire: Star Wars, the Strategic Defense Initiative and the Politics of Science-Fiction. In: Sex, Politics and Religion in Star Wars: An Anthology. Scarcrow Press, Lanham, MD, pp. 63-76. ISBN 978-0810885141
Kramer, Peter (2012) Das Boot/The Boat. In: The Cinema of Germany. 24 Frames . Wallflower Press, London, pp. 197-205. ISBN 978-1-905674-90-9
Kramer, Peter (2011) Hollywood and Its Global Audiences: A Comparative Study of the Biggest Box Office Hits in the United States and Outside the United States Since the 1970s. In: Explorations in New Cinema History: Approaches and Case Studies. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 171-84. ISBN 9781405199490 (hbk) 9781405199506 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2011) A Clockwork Orange (1971) and American Culture. In: ZeitRäume: Potsdamer Almanach des Zentrums fur Zeithisthorische Forschung. Wallsteinverlag, Gottingen, pp. 96-106. ISBN 9783835309388
Kramer, Peter (2010) Steven Spielberg. In: Fifty Contemporary Film Directors. Second Edition. Routledge, London, pp. 372-80. ISBN 9780415497664 (hbk) 9780415554336 (pbk) 9780203844342 (ebk)
Kramer, Peter (2009) Welterfolg und Apokalypse: Überlegungen zur Transnationalität des zeitgenössischen Hollywood. In: UNSPECIFIED Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, pp. 171-84. ISBN 9783770548033
Kramer, Peter (2008) The Spectre of History in the Age of Golbalization: Notes on German Hit Movies and Hit Makers at Home and in the US. In: Shifting Landscapes: Film and Media in European Context. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 68-85. ISBN 9781847184733/1847184731 (hbk) 9781443805926/1443805920 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2008) Hollywood and the Germans: A Very Special Relationship. In: The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry. Blackwell, pp. 240-50. ISBN 9781405133876; 9781405133883
Kramer, Peter (2007) When 'Hanoi Jane' Conquered Hollywood: Jane Fonda's Films and Activism, 1977-1981. In: The New Film History: Sources, Methods, Approaches. Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 104-16. ISBN 9780230001695/0230001696 (hbk) 0230594487/9780230594487 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2006) Disney and Family Entertainment. In: Contemporary American Cinema. Open University Press, Maidenhead, pp. 265-79. ISBN 0335218326 (hbk) 0335218318 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2006) Steven Spielberg. In: Contemporary American Cinema. Open University Press, Maidenhead, pp. 166-9. ISBN 0335218326 (hbk) 0335218318 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Quinn, Eithne (2006) Blaxploitation. In: Contemporary American Cinema. Open University Press, Maidenhead, pp. 184-98. ISBN 0335218326 (hbk) 0335218318 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2005) Big Pictures: Studying Contemporary Hollywood Cinema Through Its Greatest Hits. In: Screen Methods: Comparative Readings in Film Studies. Wallflower, London, pp. 124-32. ISBN 1904764355 (hbk) 1904764347 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2004) Far across the distance...': Historical Films, Film History and Titanic (1997). In: The Titanic in Myth and Memory: Representations in Visual and Literary Culture. IB Tauris, London, pp. 163-72. ISBN 185043431x (hbk) 185043428 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2004) It's aimed at kids - the kid in everybody': George Lucas, Star Wars and Children's entertainment (slightly revised reprint of essay first published in Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies, December 2001). In: Action and Adventure Cinema. Routledge, pp. 358-70. ISBN 0415235065 (hbk) 0415235073 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2004) The Rise and Fall of Sandra Bullock: Notes on Starmaking and Female Stardom in Contemporary Hollywood. In: Film Stars: Hollywood and Beyond. Manchester University Press, pp. 89-112. ISBN 0719056454 (pbk) 07190564456446 (hbk)
Kramer, Peter (2004) Drei Deutsche in Hollywood. Patriotismus, historisches Trauma und 'harmlose' Unterhaltung. In: Die Spur durch den Spiegel. Der Film in der Kultur der Morderne. Bertz, Berlin, pp. 132-45. ISBN 3-86505-155-3
Kramer, Peter (2004) The Making of a Comic Star: Buster Keaton and The Saphead (partial and slightly revised reprint of essay first published in Classical Hollywood Comedy, ed.Kristine Brunovska Karnick and Henry Jenkins). In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 279-89. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) Introduction. In: The Silent Film Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 1-9. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) Prologue. In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 11-4. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) Film Projection and Variety Shows. In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 31-9. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) Storytelling and the Nickelodeon. In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 77-85. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) Cinema and Reform. In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 135-43. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) Feature Films and Cinema Programmes. In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 187-95. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) Classical Hollywood Cinema. In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 271-8. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee (2004) European Cinemas. In: The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 329-38. ISBN 0415252830 (hbk) 0415252849 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2003) A woman in a male dominated world': Jodie Foster, Stardom and 90s Hollywood. In: Contemporary Hollywood Stardom. Arnold, London, pp. 205-18. ISBN 0340809361 (hbk) 034080937X (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2003) 'Want to take a ride?': Reflections on the Blockbuster Experience in Contact (1997). In: Movie Blockbusters. Routledge, London, pp. 128-40. ISBN 0415256089 (hbk) 0415256097 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2003) Derailing the Honeymoon Express: Comicality and Narrative Closure in Buster Keaton's The Blacksmith (partial reprint in The Velvet Light Trap, no.23, Spring 1989). In: Hollywood Comedians: The Film Reader. Routledge, pp. 43-53. ISBN 0415235510 (hbk) 0415235529 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2002) Steven Spielberg. In: Fifty Key Contemporary Filmmakers. Routledge, pp. 319-28. ISBN 0415189748 (pbk) 041518973X (hbk)
Kramer, Peter (2002) The Best Disney film Disney never made': Children's Films and the family audience in American Cinema Since the 1960's. In: Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. British Film Institute, pp. 185-200. ISBN 0851708870 (pbk) 0815708862 (hbk)
Kramer, Peter (2002) Hollywood in Germany/Germany in Hollywood. In: The German Cinema Book. BFI, pp. 227-37. ISBN 0851709451 (hbk) 091570946X (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2001) Clean, dependable slapstick': Comic Violence and the Emergence of Classical Hollywood Cinema. In: Violence and American Cinema. Routledge, pp. 103-16. ISBN 0415928095 (hbk) 0415928109 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2000) 'Faith in Relations Between People': Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday and European Integration. In: 100 Years of Cinema: Entertainment or Ideology? Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 195-206. ISBN 0719058716 (hbk) 0719058724 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2000) 'A Cutie with more than beauty': Audrey Hepburn, the Hollywood Musical and Funny Face. In: Musicals: Hollywood and Beyond. Intellect, Exeter, pp. 62-9. ISBN 1841500038 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2000) Post-classical Hollywood (partial reprint of essay first published in The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, ed.John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). In: The Film Studies Reader. Arnold, London, pp. 174-80. ISBN 0340692782 (hbk) 0340692790 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2000) Star Wars (slightly revised reprint of essay first published in History Today, vol.49, no.3, March 1999). In: The Movies as History: Visions of the Twentieth Century. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, pp. 44-53. ISBN 0750923318 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (2000) Post-classical Hollywood. In: American Cinema and Hollywood: Critical Approaches. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 63-83. ISBN 0198742819 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (1999) A Powerful Cinema-going Force? Hollywood and Female Audiences since the 1960s. In: Identifying Hollywood's Audiences: Cultural Identity and the Movies. British Film Institute, London, pp. 98-112. ISBN 0851707386 (hbk) 0851707394 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (1999) Bibliographical Notes. In: Screen Acting. Routledge, London, pp. 165-70. ISBN 041518293X (hbk) 0415182948 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (1999) The Fall and Rise of Slapstick Films: Physical Comedy in American Cinema, 1907-1913. In: The Birth of Film Genres. Forum, Udine, pp. 253-66. ISBN 8886756666
Kramer, Peter (1999) Keaton, Buster. In: American National Biography. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 429-31. ISBN 0195206355
Kramer, Peter (1999) Women First: Titanic, Action-Adventure Films and Hollywood's Female Audience (reprint of essay first published in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol.18, no.4, October 1998). In: Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, pp. 108-131. ISBN 081352668X (hbk) 0813526698 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and Lovell, Alan (1999) Introduction. In: Screen Acting. Routledge, London, pp. 1-9. ISBN 041518293X (hbk) 0415182948 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (1998) Bad Boy: Notes on a Popular Figure in American Cinema, Culture and Society, 1959-1905. In: Celebrating 1895: The Centenary of Cinema. John Libbey, London, pp. 117-30. ISBN 1864620153 (hbk)
Kramer, Peter (1998) Would You Take Your Child To See This Film? The Cultural and Social Work of the Family-Adventure Movie. In: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. Routledge, London, pp. 294-311. ISBN 0415170095 (hbk) 0415170109 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (1998) Post-classical Hollywood. In: The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 289-309. ISBN 0198711158 (hbk) 0198711247 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter (1996) The Lure of the Big Picture: Film, Television and Hollywood. In: Big Picture, Small Screen: The Relations Between Film and Television. John Libbey Media, Luton, pp. 9-46. ISBN 1860200052
Kramer, Peter (1995) The Making of a Comic Star: Buster Keaton and The Saphead. In: Classical Hollywood Comedy. Routledge, New York, pp. 190-210. ISBN 0415906393 (hbk) 0415906407 (pbk)
Kramer, Peter and van Dooren, Ine (1995) The Politics of Direct Address. In: Film and the First World War. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 97-107. ISBN 9053560645
Kramer, Peter (1992) Screen Sermons: The Uses of Religion in Early Cinema After 1907. In: An Invention of the Devil? Religion and Early Cinema. Les Presses de l’Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, pp. 187-196. ISBN 2763773001/2601031107
Book
Kramer, Peter (2011) A Clockwork Orange. Palgrave, Basingstoke . ISBN 9780230302129
Kramer, Peter (2010) 2001: A Space Odyssey. BFI Film Classics . British Film Institute, London. ISBN 9781844572861
Kramer, Peter (2005) The New Hollywood:From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars. Wallflower Press, London, p. 129. ISBN 1904764584
Kramer, Peter and Grieveson, Lee, eds. (2004) The Silent Cinema Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 1-11. ISBN 0415252849 (pbk) 0415252830 (hbk)
Kramer, Peter and Lovell, Alan, eds. (1999) Screen Acting. Routledge, London. ISBN 041518293X (hbk) 0415182948 (pbk)
External Activities and Indicators of Esteem
- Invited speaker at conferences in Australia, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Germany and the UK, as well as at the 54th Berlin Film Festival in 2004, and the Sight and Sound panel ‘Kubrick’s Critical Odyssey’ at the National Film Theatre in 2009, also at the Star Wars 30th anniversary event and the American Graffiti 35th anniversary event, both in Modesto, California, in 2007 and 2008 respectively Six series of guest lectures at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, as well as numerous talks and workshops at universities in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands
- Member of the editorial boards of The New Review of Film and Television Studies and the on-line journals Scope and Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture; occasional reader for Popular Music, the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Convergence, Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, the European Journal of American Culture, Screen, the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Iluminace and Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies
- Reader’s reports for Palgrave, Continuum, Oxford University Press, Wiley-Blackwell, Routledge, Indiana University Press, the BFI, Berghahn, Edinburgh University Press, Polity, University of Exeter Press, Manchester University Press, Pluto, Pearson Education, Blackwell and Wallflower Press External examiner, from 2001 to 2005, for the BA in Screen Studies at Liverpool John Moores University, and since July 2011 for the MA Film Studies at the University of Winchester, also for PhD dissertations at Loughborough University, the University of Southampton, the University of Warwick and the University of Cambridge
- Peer reviewer for grant applications submitted to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Austrian Science Foundation (Fond zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung in Österreich), the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Czech Science Foundation and the AHRC
- Interviews for the local and national press as well as local and national radio, also for the Czech film journal Iluminace and for podcasts Reprints of several essays in edited collections
Key Responsibilities
Director of MA Programmes in FTM
Library Liaison for FTM
