Login
Login

Linda Ruth Williams

{{Short description|British academic (born 1961)}}

{{For|the American film critic|Linda Williams (film scholar)}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{BLP sources|date=January 2016}}

{{more footnotes|date=January 2011}}

}}

{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

{{Infobox scholar

| image =

| imagesize =

| alt =

| caption =

| full_name =

| other_names =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1961|04|16}}

| birth_place = United Kingdom

| death_date =

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| spouse = {{marriage|Mark Kermode|1991}}

| children = 2

| era =

| region =

| workplaces = University of Exeter

| alma_mater = University of Sussex

| thesis_title = Misogynistic knowledge and the 'cocksure' woman: Freud, Nietzsche and feminism in the interpretation of D.H. Lawrence

| thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59970533

| thesis_year = 1987

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students =

| notable_students =

| school_tradition =

| main_interests = Film studies, sexuality, censorship

| principal_ideas =

| major_works = The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema

| awards =

| influences =

| influenced =

| website = {{URL|humanities.exeter.ac.uk/film/staff/lwilliams}}

| footnotes =

}}

Linda Ruth Williams (born 16 April 1961){{cite web | title = Williams, Linda Ruth | url = http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n94005853.html | publisher = Library of Congress | access-date=22 October 2015|quote= data sheet (b. 04-16-1961) }} is a professor of film studies in the department of Communications (of which she is head), Drama, and Film at the University of Exeter, UK.{{Cite web|url=http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/film/staff/lwilliams/|title=Professor Linda Ruth Williams|website=University of Exeter|language=en|access-date=2017-12-17}} Her special interests include sexuality and censorship in cinema and literature (she has written widely on pornography, including a book on soft-core cinema), women in film, psychoanalytic theory and D. H. Lawrence.

Biography

=Education=

Williams went to school in Bristol, where she grew up, and followed her English degree at the University of Sussex with an MA in Critical Theory. She earned her PhD from Sussex on Lawrence, Nietzsche, Freud and Feminism.

=Career=

She has lectured at Liverpool, Manchester and Exeter Universities, and, between 1994 and 2017, at Southampton University.{{Cite web|url=http://www.southampton.ac.uk/english/about/staff/lrw1.page|title=Professor Linda Ruth Williams|website=University of Southampton|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504111100/http://www.southampton.ac.uk/english/about/staff/lrw1.page|archive-date=4 May 2017|url-status=dead|access-date=2017-07-16|df=dmy-all}} She is currently Professor of Film at the University of Exeter.

She has written several books, including the influential Critical Desire: Psychoanalysis and the Literary Subject and The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema, and is a regular contributor to the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine, and to radio programmes including Woman's Hour. Her 2006 book, Contemporary American Cinema was co-edited with fellow Southampton lecturer Michael Hammond.

Personal life

She is married to the film critic Mark Kermode, and they have two children.{{Cite news|first=Mark |last=Lawson|author-link=Mark Lawson|title=Drawn to the devil |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/09/film-mark-kermode-interview|newspaper=The Guardian|date=9 April 2009|access-date=10 January 2024 | location=London}} She is co-curator of the annual Shetland Film Festival, Screenplay, run by Shetland Arts, and is a founding organiser of the New Forest Festival.{{cn|date=January 2021}}

Publications

=Books=

  • {{cite book | last1 = Williams | first1 = Linda R. | last2 = Wilcox | first2 = Helen | last3 = McWatters | first3 = Keith | last4 = Ann | first4 = Thompson | title = The body and the text: Hélène Cixous: reading and teaching | publisher = St. Martin's Press | location = New York | year = 1990 | isbn = 9780312057695 }}
  • {{cite book | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = The Twentieth century: a guide to literature from 1900 to the present day | publisher = Bloomsbury Press | series = Bloomsbury Guides to Literature Series | location = London | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780747512875 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury0000unse_z2d4 }}
  • {{cite book | last = Lawrence | first = D. H. | editor-last = Williams | editor-first = Linda R. | title = Women in love | publisher = Knopf | location = New York | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780460873222 }} (With introduction by Williams.)
  • {{cite book | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Sex in the head: visions of femininity and film in D.H. Lawrence | url = https://archive.org/details/sexinheadvisions0000will | url-access = registration | publisher = Wayne State University Press | location = Detroit | year = 1993 | isbn = 9780814325070 }}
  • {{cite book | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | title = Critical desire: psychoanalysis and the literary subject | publisher = E. Arnold Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martinʼs Press | location = London & New York | year = 1995 | isbn = 9780340568163 }}
  • {{cite book | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | title = D.H. Lawrence | publisher = Northcote House in association with the British Council | series = Writers and Their Work Series | location = Plymouth, U.K | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780746307595 }}
  • {{cite book | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | title = The erotic thriller in contemporary cinema | publisher = Indiana University Press | location = Bloomington | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780253347138 }}
  • {{cite book | last1 = Williams | first1 = Linda R. | last2 = Hammond | first2 = Michael | title = Contemporary American cinema | publisher = Open University Press | location = Maidenhead | year = 2005 | isbn = 9781283337885 }}

=Book chapters=

  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Behind the silken-folded mask: Victorian and modern poetry | editor-last = Wynne-Davies | editor-first = Marion | title = Bloomsbury guide to English literature: the new authority on English literature | pages = 253–291 | publisher = Bloomsbury | location = London | year = 1989 | isbn = 9780136896623 | postscript = .}} (Also wrote numerous reference entries on British Poetry since 1830 for that text.)
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Critical warfare and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer | editor-last = Sellers | editor-first = Susan | editor-link = Susan Sellers | title = Feminist criticism: theory and practice | pages = [https://archive.org/details/feministcriticis0000unse/page/23 23–43] | publisher = University of Toronto Press | location = Toronto | year = 1991 | isbn = 9780802069245 | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/feministcriticis0000unse/page/23 }}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Happy families? Feminist transmission and matrilineal thought | editor-last = Armstrong | editor-first = Isobel | editor-link = Isobel Armstrong | title = New feminist discourses: critical essays on theories and texts | pages = [https://archive.org/details/newfeministdisco0000unse/page/48 48–64] | publisher = Routledge | location = London New York | series = Routledge Library Editions: Women, Feminism and Literature Series | year = 1992 | isbn = 9780415067416 | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/newfeministdisco0000unse/page/48 }}

::Extracted as: {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Happy families? Feminist transmission and matrilineal thought | editor-last = Eagleton | editor-first = Mary | title = Feminist literary theory: a reader | pages = [https://archive.org/details/feministliterary0000unse_s0x4/page/41 41–44] | publisher = Blackwell | location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, Massachusetts, US | year = 2011 | edition = 3rd | isbn = 9781405183130 | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/feministliterary0000unse_s0x4/page/41 }}

  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Everything in question: women and film in prospect | editor-last1 = Cook | editor-first1 = Pam | editor-last2 = Dodd | editor-first2 = Philip | editor-link1 = Pam Cook | editor-link2 = Philip Dodd (broadcaster) | title = Women and film | pages = xxiv–xxix | publisher = Temple University Press | location = Philadelphia | series = A Sight and Sound Reader | year = 1993 | isbn = 9781566391436 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Sisters under the skin: video and blockbuster erotic thrillers | editor-last1 = Cook | editor-first1 = Pam | editor-last2 = Dodd | editor-first2 = Philip | editor-link1 = Pam Cook | editor-link2 = Philip Dodd (broadcaster) | title = Women and film: a sight and sound reader | pages = 105–114 | publisher = Temple University Press | location = Philadelphia | year = 1993 | isbn = 9781566391436 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Select bibliography | editor-last1 = Cook | editor-first1 = Pam | editor-last2 = Dodd | editor-first2 = Philip | editor-link1 = Pam Cook | editor-link2 = Philip Dodd (broadcaster) | title = Women and film: a sight and sound reader | pages = 254–264 | publisher = Temple University Press | location = Philadelphia | year = 1993 | isbn = 9781566391436 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Select bibliography | editor-last1 = Ledger | editor-first1 = Sally | editor-last2 = McDonagh | editor-first2 = Josephine | editor-last3 = Spencer | editor-first3 = Jane | editor-link1 = Sally Ledger | title = Political gender: texts and contexts | pages = 189–203 | publisher = Harvester Wheatsheaf | location = New York London | year = 1994 | isbn = 9780745015620 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Fiona Banner | editor-last1 = Dodd | editor-first1 = Philip | editor-last2 = Christie | editor-first2 = Ian | editor-link1 = Philip Dodd (broadcaster) | editor-link2 = Ian Christie (film scholar) | title = Spellbound | pages = 52–59 | publisher = British Film Institute Hayward Gallery | location = London | year = 1996 | isbn = 9780851706108 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = The inside-out of masculinity: David Cronenberg's visceral pleasures | editor-last = Aaron | editor-first = Michele | title = The body's perilous pleasures dangerous desires and contemporary culture | pages = 30–48 | publisher = Edinburgh University Press | location = Edinburgh | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780585159225 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Dream girls and mechanic panic: dystopia and its others in Brazil and Nineteen Eighty-Four | editor-last = Hunter | editor-first = I.Q. | title = British science fiction cinema | pages = [https://archive.org/details/britishsciencefi0000unse/page/153 153–168] | publisher = Routledge | location = London & New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780415168687 | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/britishsciencefi0000unse/page/153 }}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Section 2: Arnold Schwarzenegger as spectacle in action (and some Moore): 'Body Talk' by Linda Ruth Williams (November 1997) | editor-last = Arroyo | editor-first = José | title = Action/spectacle cinema | pages = 44–50 | publisher = British Film Institute | location = London | series = A Sight and Sound Reader | year = 2000 | isbn = 9780851707563 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Sex and censoriousness: pornography and censorship in Britain | editor-last1 = Briggs | editor-first1 = Adam | editor-last2 = Cobley | editor-first2 = Paul | title = The media: an introduction | pages = [https://archive.org/details/mediaintroductio0000unse/page/477 477–495] | publisher = Pearson Education | location = Harlow, England & New York | edition = 2nd | year = 2002 | isbn = 9780582423466 | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/mediaintroductio0000unse/page/477 }}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Ready for action: G.I. Jane, Demi Moore's body and the female combat movie | editor-last = Tasker | editor-first = Yvonne|editor1-link=Yvonne Tasker | title = Action and adventure cinema | pages = 169–185 | publisher = Routledge | location = London & New York | year = 2004 | isbn = 9780415235075 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Twin Peaks: David Lynch and the serial-thriller soap | editor-last1 = Hammond | editor-first1 = Michael | editor-last2 = Mazdon | editor-first2 = Lucy | title = The contemporary television series | pages = 37–56 | publisher = Edinburgh University Press | location = Edinburgh | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780748619016 | postscript = .}}
  • {{citation | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | contribution = Dream girls and mechanic panic: dystopia and its others in Brazil and Nineteen Eighty-Four | editor-last = Redmond | editor-first = Sean | title = Liquid metal: the science fiction film reader | pages = 64–73 | publisher = Wallflower Press | location = New York & Chichester, England | year = 2007 | isbn = 9781903364871 | postscript = .}}

=Journal articles=

  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Submission and reading: feminine masochism and feminist criticism | journal = New Formations, Modernism / Masochism | volume = 7 | pages = 9–19 | publisher = Lawrence and Wishart | date = Spring 1989 | url = http://www.newformations.co.uk/abstracts/contents.html }} [http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/newformations/07_09.pdf Pdf.]
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Men in feminism | journal = Women: A Cultural Review | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 63–65 | doi = 10.1080/09574049008578023 | date = July 1990 }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = The Trial of D.H. Lawrence | journal = Critical Survey | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | pages = 154–161 | publisher = Berghahn Books | date = July 1992 | jstor = 41555646 }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Identity orgies | journal = New Formations, Michel Foucault: J'accuse | volume = 25 | pages = 123–127 | publisher = Lawrence and Wishart | date = Summer 1995 | url = http://www.newformations.co.uk/abstracts/nf25abstracts.html | access-date = 23 October 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150217003544/http://www.newformations.co.uk/abstracts/nf25abstracts.html | archive-date = 17 February 2015 | url-status = dead }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Body talk: In the new G.I.Jane, Demi Moore shows her muscles as a US Navy SEAL. But is her shape-shifting purely about image control, asks Linda Ruth Williams | journal = Sight & Sound | volume = 7 | issue = 11 | pages = 18–22 | publisher = British Film Institute | date = 1997 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = "We've Been Forgetting that We're Flesh and Blood, Mother", "Glad Ghosts" and "Uncanny Bodies" | journal = D. H. Lawrence Review| volume = 27 | issue = 2&3 | pages = 233–253 | publisher = Southwest Texas State University | date = 1997–1998 | url = http://www.dhlawrencereview.org/archive/v27/v272&3.html }} (Editors: Howard J. Booth, Elizabeth M. Fox and Fiona Becket.)
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = The edge of the razor | journal = Sight & Sound | pages = 13–14 | publisher = British Film Institute | date = October 1999 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }} (Interview with director Catherine Breillat.)
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Blood sisters | journal = Sight & Sound | volume = 11 | issue = 6 | pages = 36–37 | publisher = British Film Institute | date = June 2001 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Escape artist | journal = Sight & Sound | pages = 22–25 | publisher = British Film Institute | date = October 2002 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Swing high, swing low | journal = Sight & Sound | pages = 32–33 | publisher = British Film Institute | date = March 2003 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Songs for swinging lovers | journal = Sight & Sound | publisher = British Film Institute | date = December 2005 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Sleeping with the enemy | journal = Sight & Sound | publisher = British Film Institute | date = February 2007 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Ken Russell: sweet swell of excess | journal = Sight & Sound | publisher = British Film Institute | date = July 2007 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | title = Speaking of soft core | journal = Cinema Journal | volume = 47 | issue = 2 | pages = 129–135 | doi = 10.1353/cj.2008.0013 | jstor = 30137707 | date = Winter 2008 }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda R. | title = Mister Strangelove | journal = Sight & Sound | publisher = British Film Institute | date = March 2009 | url = https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-back-issues }}
  • {{Cite journal | last = Williams | first = Linda Ruth | title = The tears of Henry Thomas Screen | journal = Screen | volume = 53 | issue = 4 | pages = 459–464 | doi = 10.1093/screen/hjs051 | date = Winter 2012 }}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb name|195668}}
  • [http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/film/staff/lwilliams/biography/ University of Exeter Biography]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Linda Ruth}}

Category:1961 births

Category:Alumni of the University of Sussex

Category:Academics of the University of Southampton

Category:British mass media scholars

Category:British non-fiction writers

Category:Living people

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:British film critics

Category:British women film critics