How did audiences across the world respond to the films of The Lord of the Rings? This book presents findings from the largest film audience project ever undertaken, drawing from 25,000 questionnaire responses and a wide array of other materials. Contributors use these materials to explore a series of widely speculated questions: why is film fantasy important to different kinds of viewers? Through marketing, previews and reviews, debates and cultural chatter, how are audiences prepared for a film like this? How did fans of the book respond to its adaptation on screen? How do people choose their favorite characters? How was the films' reception shaped by different national and cultural contexts?
The answers to these questions shed fresh light on the extraordinary popularity of The Lord of the Rings and provide important new insights into the global reception of cinema in the twenty-first century. How did audiences across the world respond to the films of The Lord of the Rings? This book presents findings from the largest film audience project ever undertaken, drawing from 25,000 questionnaire responses and a wide array of other materials. Contributors use these materials to explore a series of widely speculated questions: why is film fantasy important to different kinds of viewers? Through marketing, previews and reviews, debates and cultural chatter, how are audiences prepared for a film like this? How did fans of the book respond to its adaptation on screen? How do people choose their favorite characters? How was the films¿ reception shaped by different national and cultural contexts?
The answers to these questions shed fresh light on the extraordinary popularity of The Lord of the Rings and provide important new insights into the global reception of cinema in the twenty-first century. List of Tables and Figure
vii
Acknowledgments
ix
List of Contributors
xi
Introduction: Researching The Lord of the Rings: Audiences and Contexts
1(20)
Martin Barker
Kate Egan
Stan Jones
Ernest Mathijs
The Lord of the Rings: Selling the Franchise
21(16)
Janet Wasko
An Avalanche of Attention: The Prefiguration and Reception of The Lord of the Rings
37(22)
Daniel Biltereyst
Ernest Mathijs
Philippe Meers
Promotional Frame Makers and the Meaning of the Text: The Case of The Lord of the Rings
59(10)
Breda Luthar
What Do Female Fans Want? Blockbusters, The Return of the King, and U.S. Audiences
69(14)
Barbara Klinger
The Books, the DVDs, the Extras, and Their Lovers
83(20)
Kate Egan
Martin Barker
Understanding Disappointment: The Australian Book Lovers and Adaptation
103(8)
Sue Turnbull
Involvement in The Lord of the Rings: Audience Strategies and Orientations
111(20)
Lothar Mikos
Susanne Eichner
Elizabeth Prommer
Michael Wedel
Global Flows and Local Identifications? The Lord of the Rings and the Cross-National Reception of Characters and Genres
131(18)
Giselinde Kuipers
Jeroen De Kloet
The Functions of Fantasy: A Comparison of Audiences for The Lord of the Rings in Twelve Countries
149(32)
Martin Barker
Beyond Words? The Return of the King and the Pleasures of the Text
181(10)
Sue Turnbull
Heroism in The Return of the King
191(8)
Jose Javier Sanchez Aranda
Joseba Bonaut
Maria del Mar Grandio
The Fantasy of Reading: Moments of Reception of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
199(8)
Daniel Biltereyst
Sofie Van Bauwel
Understanding Text as Cultural Practice and as Dynamic Process of Making
207(6)
Lothar Mikos
Our Methodological Challenges and Solutions
213(28)
Martin Barker
Ernest Mathijs
Alberto Trobia
Appendix: The World Data Set
241(4)
Notes
245(32)
Bibliography
277(14)
Index
291
Ik heb een vraag over het boek: ‘Watching The Lord of the Rings - Barker, Martin, Mathijs, Ernest’.
Vul het onderstaande formulier in.
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