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Isabel Rhodes

Background

I hold a BA in English and Film Studies from the University of Exeter and a MA with Distinction in Film and Television Studies from the University of Warwick.

My research interests include film and history and British cinema and television.

Thesis

“Screening the Seventies: Representations of the 1970s in British Film and Television”

Supervisor: Professor Charlotte Brunsdon

My thesis is concerned with representations of the 1970s in British film and television. Looking at texts made during the last ten years, it explores questions of ‘decade image’, aiming to map the general contours, tropes and themes whereby the ‘seventies’ exists on our screens today.

Often labelled the ‘birthplace’ of Modern Britain, the ‘70s have nevertheless held an overwhelmingly negative position in contemporary consciousness and been decried as the moment when the failure of the Postwar consensus became irrefutable and the liberal idealism of the 1960s ossified, paving the way for Thatcher’s Britain and materialism of the 1980s. My project is aiming to interrogate this position, exploring if and how contemporary representations of the decade go beyond this tradition, asking why the 1970s occupies such a contested space, and what we can learn through examining its representation in film and television.

 

Teaching

In Spring 2015 I will be assisting Professor Stella Bruzzi in teaching seminars on the first-year undergraduate Basic History Module.

Contact

Email: I.J.S.Rhodes@warwick.ac.uk