Parallel Tracks

The Railroad and Silent Cinema

By (author) Lynne Kirby

Publication date:

01 February 1997

Publisher

University of Exeter Press

Dimensions:

229x152mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780859895286

From its earliest days, the cinema has enjoyed a special kinship with the railroad, a mutual attraction based on similar ways of handling speed, visual perception, and the promise of a journey. PARALLEL TRACKS is the first book to explore and explain this relationship in both historical and theoretical terms, blending film scholarship with railroad history.

This highly original work reveals the profound impact that the railroad and the cinema have had on Western society and modern urban industrial culture. It will be eagerly received by those involved in film studies, American studies, feminist theory and the cultural study of modernity. It will also have appeal to general readers interested in silent films or in the history of the railroad.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Inventors and Hysterics: The Train in the Prehistory and Early History of Cinema
2. Romances of the Rail in Silent Film
3. The Railroad in the City
4. National Identity in the Train Film
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Irresistible—Parallel Tracks is a highly original and unique work. Kirby’s intersection of theoretical concerns with a rich exploration of the relation between cinema and the railway provides a work that is fascinating, intriguing, and intellectually entertaining.