Graduate Colloquium: Justin Rawlins

Dr. Justin Rawlins (Associate Professor of Media Studies and Film Studies at the University of Tulsa) published a new book from the University of Texas Press titled Imagining the Method: Reception, Identity, and American Screen Performance. The book offers a revisionist history of Method acting in U.S. cinema by focusing on its historical reception from the postwar era to the present, as opposed to analyzing craft and technique from the actor’s perspective. Dr. Rawlins argues that popular definitions of the Method are based on the cultural standards of white masculinity (think Marlon Brando), determining what counts as Method acting and who qualifies as a Method actor, thereby ascribing “rebellion” and “marginalization” to an exclusive group. To that end, Dr. Rawlins posits that the Method as an idea was produced beyond the exhibition of performance on the stage and screen, circulating in wider contexts of acting discourse. Making use of paratextual material such as studio pressbooks and publicity campaigns, actor diaries, studio correspondence, fan club journals, audience letters, and film reviews, he takes a document-driven approach to the study of film acting rather than relying on films alone as primary sources. This extensive research drew from collections at the Harry Ransom Center, Margaret Herrick Library, Warner Bros. Archive, Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive, UCLA Film and Television Archive, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Columbia University’s Oral History Archives, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, Lilly Library, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.