Staff Profile

Introduction

I lived most of my early life in New Zealand where I was educated - BA Auckland, MA VIctoria, Wellington, hence the return to New Zealand subjects in my later work (especially the history of New Zealand film out this year, 2007).I worked on Ben Jonson for my B Litt at Oxford, which was the route by which I came to Newcastle, where I taught Elizabethan drama and modern literature (Particularly Wallace Stevens and, later, Detective Fiction, the precursor of the generic subjects now taught in the School ).In the late 70s Peter Evans, who was then in the Spanish

Roles and Responsibilities

All matters to do with Combined Honours English

Qualifications

BA (Auckland), MA (Victoria, Wellington), B Litt (Oxon)

Previous Positions

Junior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington
Lecturer/ Senior Lecturer/ Reader University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Languages

some Thai
some Maori

Informal Interests

cricket, rugby.
music (opera, american country music, Thai country music, Western and Asian classical music, 1920's-1960s popular music).

Research Interests

British, Hollywood and New Zealand Cinema, Television (especially Situation Comedy and New Zealand television), New Zealand Literature ,Crime Fiction,Sport on Television, Wallace Stevens.

Current Work

Writing essays on Irene Dunne, on Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner, on the Maori comedian Billy T.James, on Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong, on Loyd Jones' The Book of Fame, on the New Zealand novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson and the 'Australasian literary figure Arthur H Adams.

Future Research

Continuation of work on a book on the silent films of Ernst Lubitsch.
Various aspects of New Zealand cinema, tv and literature.

Postgraduate Supervision

Various PhDs first and second supervisor

Esteem Indicators

Lots of, but tiresome to repeat and it's for others to say.

Funding

Carmen Project: with others, £126000 AHRB
New Zealand book: extra semester funding AHRC

• Babington BF. Launder and Gilliat. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2002.
• Babington B. A history of the New Zealand fiction feature film. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007.
• Powrie P, Babington B, Davies A, Perriam C. Carmen on Film : A Cultural History. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2007.
• Powrie P, Davies A, Babington B. The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema. London: Wallflower Press, 2004.
• Babington B. 'To Catch a Star on Your Fingertips': Diagnoising the Medical Biopic from The Story of Louis Pasteur to Freud. In: Harper, G., Moor, A, ed. Signs of Life: Medicine and Cinema. London: Wallflower Press, 2005, pp.120-131.
• Babington B. What Streams May Come: Navigating Vincent Ward's River Queen. Illusions: a New Zealand magazine of film, television and theatre criticism 2007, 39, 9-13.
• Babington B, ed. British Stars adn Stardom: from Alma Taylor to Sean Connery. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2001.
• Babington B. Post Colonial Poppyshows: An Extramural Examination of the Improprieties of 'Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, Series 1. Illusions: a New Zealand magazine of film, television and theatre criticism 2008, 40, 47-50.
• Babington B. Essays: 'Applause', 'The Paleface', 'Only Two Can Play'. In: Pendergast, T; Pendergast, S; Schneider, SJ, ed. Understanding Film Genres. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007.
• Babington BF. Star Personae and Authenticity in the Country Music Biopic. In: Conrich, I., Tinknell , E, ed. Film's Musical Moments. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2006, pp.84-98.
• Babington B. ‘Carry Me Back or Bugger Me Days’: Time, Place and Genre in the Films of John Reid. In: Conrich, I; Murray , S, ed. New Zealand Filmmakers. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2007, pp.236-252.
• Babington B. Anchor Me in the Middle of Your Deep Blue Sea: Gaylene Preston, Perfect Strangers, and Ambivalent Romance. Illusions 2004, (36), 21-15.
• Babington B. Herr Lubitsch Joins the Corps Saxonia: History Gesture and Homosociality in 'The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg'. In: Powrie, p., Davies, A., Babington, B, ed. The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema. London: Wallflower Press, 2004, pp.123-133.
• Powrie P, Davies A, Babington B. 'Introduction: Turning the Male Inside Out'. In: Powrie, P., Davies, A., Babington, B, ed. The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema. London: Wallflower Press, 2004, pp.1-15.
• Babington BF. Losey, Joseph Walton (1909–1984). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/61049.
• Babington BF. Various entries. In: McFarlane, B., Rutherford, M., Sim, A., Aubrey Smith, C., Whalley, J, ed. Encyclopedia of British Film. London: Methuen Publishing Ltd, 2003.
• Babington B. Queen of British Hearts: Margaret Lockwood Revisited. In: Babington, B, ed. British Stars and Stardom: from Alma Taylor to Sean Connery. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2001, pp.94-107.
• Babingon B. Song, Narrative and the Mother's Voice: A Deepish Reading of Julie Andrews. In: Babington, B, ed. British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to Sean Connery. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2001, pp.192-204.
• Babington B. Introduction: British Stars and Stardom. In: Babington, B, ed. British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to Sean Connery. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2001, pp.1-28.
• Babington B. Scandal. In: McFarlane, B, ed. The Cinema of Britain and Ireland. London: Wallflower Press, 2005, pp.197-205.
• Babington BF. Jumping on the Band Wagon Again: Oedipus Backstage in the Father and Mother of all Musicals. In: Marshall,B; Stilwell,R, ed. Musicals: Hollywood and Beyond. United Kingdom: Intellect Books, 2000, pp.31-39.
• Babington BF. Politica E Estetica: Nos Musicais da Fox. Raízes, Rotas, Reflexões, 1498-1998 (Fundaçao Memorial da América Latina), Editors: B. McGuirk and M. Heck, 109-59 1998.
• Babington Bruce. Time Trips and Other Tropes: Peggy Sue Got Married on the Edges of Romantic Comedy. Terms of Endearment: Sex and Gender in 80s and 90s Romantic Comedy, Editors: P. W. Evans and C. Deleyto, Edinburgh University Press, 93-110 1998.
• Babington BF. Shakespeare Meets the Warner Brothers: Reinhardt and Dieterle's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935). In: Batchelor, J.B., Cain, T.G.S., Lamont, C, ed. Shakespearean Continuities: Essays in Honour of E.A.J. Honigmann. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1997, pp.259-274.
• Bruce Babington. ‘Written By The Wind’: Sierck / Sirk’s La Habanera (1937). Forum for Modern Language Studies, XXXI,I, 24-36 1995.
• Babington B, Evans P. Matters of Life and Death in Powell and Pressburger’s The Tales of Hoffmann. In: Tambling, J, ed. A Night in at the Opera: Media Representations of Opera. London: John Libbey, 1994, pp.145-168.
• Babington B, Evans P. Biblical Epics: Sacred Narrative in the Hollywood Cinema. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1993.
• Babington B, Evans P. Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1989.
• Babington B. The Phantom in Chains: Narrative and Oedipal Romance in Bunuel’s The Phantom of Liberty. In: Rees, M.A, ed. Catholic Tastes and Times: Essays in Honour of Michael E. Williams. Leeds, UK: Trinity & All Saints' College, 1987, pp.157–187.
• Babington BF. American Crime Fiction Post 1945. (with C. Routledge) ABES Electronic Bibliography (Swets and Zeitlinger), 1986 onwards 1986.
• Babington B, Evans P. Blue Skies and Silver Linings: Aspects of the Hollywood Musical. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1985.
• Babington B, Evans P. Life of the Interior: Dreams in the Films of Luis Bunuel. Critical Quarterly 1985, 27(4), 5-22.
• Bruce Babington. All That Heaven Allowed: Another Look at Sirkian Irony. (with P. Evans) Movie,No 34/5 1984.
• Babington B. Twice a Victim: Carrie meets the BFI. Screen 1983, 24(3), 4-18.
• Babington B. Wallace Stevens' 'Forces,the Will and the Weather'. The Year's Work in English Studies, Special Issue 1980, 10, 210-223.