The Velvet Light Trap and the 1990s: An Annotated Bibliography

With this bibliography, we wish to draw attention to a selection of past Velvet Light Trap articles that contend with the 1990s as a decade that produced lasting changes in film and media production, circulation, and reception. The articles cited here grapple with shifts in the American media industries, especially regarding representation of marginalized groups and voices. Simultaneously, they continue to remind us of the significant developments and trends that were happening outside of the United States during this period. As many of the articles were published in the late 1990s, this bibliography offers a chance to consider how assessments of the decade have shifted as new methodologies and perspectives have emerged in media studies.

MARK GALLAGHER, “MASCULINITY IN TRANSLATION: JACKIE CHAN’S TRANSCULTURAL STAR TEXT,” VELVET LIGHT TRAP 39 (SPRING 1997): 23–41

This article provides a profile of the actor Jackie Chan and describes how the persona crafted in his films is at odds with virtually all of the stock traits of Hollywood action heroes, considering Chan to be representative of an alternative mode of male heroism. In particular, Gallagher analyzes the manner in which genre conventions of action and comedy interplay with one another in order to imbue a sense of flexibility to an otherwise rigid conception of masculinity. While the blending of genre specificities may have been novel to a Western audience, Gallagher astutely notes how this is often not the case in Hong Kong cinema, allowing Chan to be a site of transcultural exchange and cinematic experimentation. Further, the author comments on the often self-deprecating wit in Chan’s films and points out the ways that his films avoid the homoerotic treatment of the male body in several Hollywood action films.

JOHN STENGER, “CONSUMING THE PLANET: PLANET HOLLYWOOD, STARS, AND THE GLOBAL CONSUMER CULTURE,” VELVET LIGHT TRAP 40 (FALL 1997): 42–55

John Stenger’s article analyzes the cultural significance of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, beginning with the question of how the restaurant became a dominant theme restaurant during a brief five-year period in the mid-1990s. Stenger suggests that Planet Hollywood activated a cinematic spectatorial mode in its fundamental connections to the film industry and its stars, discussing factors like the restaurant grand openings, which featured stars such as Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Demi Moore. Considering the reactions to these restaurants in foreign countries (and their curious appeal for tourists traveling abroad), he argues that the restaurant helped increase the international acceptance of the relationship between Hollywood films, hyperactive consumption, and American mall culture.

ANNE CIECKO, “TRANSGENDER, TRANSGENRE, AND THE TRANSNATIONAL: SALLY POTTER’S ORLANDO,” VELVET LIGHT TRAP 41 (SPRING 1998): 19–34

In this article, Anne Ciecko discusses Sally Potter’s 1992 film Orlando, an adaptation of the novel by Virginia Woolf, analyzing how the film illuminates the connections between the construction of genre, national identity, and gender in film. She locates the film’s generic destabilization in its staging, writing, historical enactment, and gender performance, finding that the art cinema mode allows Ciecko to explore the bounds of representation in ways that commercial film-making would not. The author considers Orlando in light of Potter’s earlier films and contrasts the portrayals of sexuality in the novel and the film, arguing that the film forces an engagement with complex problems, including spectatorial identification and the politics of textual adaptation, in its presentation of constructed gender identity.

RON BECKER, “PRIME-TIME TELEVISION IN THE GAY NINETIES: NETWORK TELEVISION, QUALITY AUDIENCES, AND GAY POLITICS,” VELVET LIGHT TRAP 42 (FALL 1998): 36–47

In this article, Ron Becker analyzes the major forces behind a trend in network broadcasting of the 1990s, identifying more than twenty series that featured openly gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual characters, as well as numerous popular shows focusing on gay topics. Becker argues that it is the network’s desire to target a quality audience in the increasingly competitive era of nineties narrowcasting, discussing the programming strategies of network executives and examining the relationship between the industry’s conception of its audiences and the recent deluge of prime-time homosexuality. Explaining...