Poetic Visions of America: The Cinema of Terrence Malick Edited by Hannah Patterson

Commissioned by Wallflower Press, this edited collection on the cinema of Terrence Malick will be an addition to their Directors’ Cuts series, which includes forthcoming titles on Emir Kusturica, Ken Loach, Robert Lepage, Kathryn Bigelow, Krzystof Kieslowski, Wes Craven, Ang Lee and John Sayles. It will include 10 -12 essays, which should be approximately 6,000 words in length, and an introduction written by the editor.

Although many articles have been written on Terrence Malick, to date there have been no publications that focus solely on his work. Despite the brevity of his output, Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line have been much discussed by critics, cited by directors as influential on their work, and hold a canonical place in cinema. This collection will enable his films to be more thoroughly explored by a range of specialist writers from different disciplines.

Suggested subject-matter areas include:

• Thematics and generics
  • Issues of identity
  • Man and nature
  • Philosophy and Heidegger
  • Social codes/authority/breaking the law/outsiders
  • Elegy and myth
  • The American Dream
• Aesthetics and stylistics
  • Use of music
  • Use of voice-over
  • Performance and star persona
  • Elliptical narrative
  • European aesthetic/modernism
• The man, the myth and his influence
  Artistic effects on subsequent directors
  • The public and private
  • Critical reception

• Badlands
  • Road-movie
  • Serial killer
  • Lovers on the run
  • American Dream
• Days of Heaven
  • Art and the painterly
  • Class
  • The land
• The Thin Red Line
  • Adaptation
  • Place within the War genre