Richard Dyer (born 1945) is an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
academic who held a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at
King's College London. Specialising in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment and representations of race, sexuality, and gender, he was previously a faculty member of the Film Studies Department at the University of Warwick for many years and has held a number of visiting professorships in the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.
Career
Born in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
to a lower-middle class
Conservative Party supporting family and raised in the suburbs of London during the 1940s and 1950s, Dyer studied French (as well as English, German, and Philosophy) at the University of St Andrews.
He then went on to earn his doctoral degree in English at the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...
’s
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...
.
During the 1970s, Dyer authored articles for the ''
Gay Left
Gay Left was a collective of gay men and a journal of the same name which they published every six months in London between the years 1975 and 1980. It was formed after the dissolution of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Marxist Gro ...
'' and then during the 1980s wrote for ''
Marxism Today
''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacqu ...
,'' the theoretical journal of the "
Eurocommunist
Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
" or Gramscian wing of the
Communist Party of Great Britain. These writings were mostly cultural criticism rather than class politics based, with titles such as "In Defence of Disco" (1979) and "
Diana Ross" (1982). In the early 1980s he contributed to the partwork ''The Movie'', notably with a partially critical piece on
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...
.
Before coming to King's College London in 2006, he was a Professor of Film Studies at the University of Warwick and a visiting professor at the following institutions: University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communications in 1985; the Istituto Universitario Orientale in 1987; Stockholm University in 1996, 2006, and 2010; the University of Copenhagen in 2002; New York University in 2003; the University of Bergamo in 2004; Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar in 2009; the University of St. Andrews in 2011. Throughout his career, he has taught courses on race and ethnicity, film, stardom, Hollywood, Italian cinema, Federico Fellini, and representation. He was also very involved in graduate education, and supervised dissertations on subjects ranging from the history of gay cinema during the 1970s to experimental animation. Having already published widely on whiteness, film, and lesbian and gay cultures, Dyer published journal articles and book chapters on song in Italian cinema and whiteness in the film, ''Dirty Dancing''.
''White: Essays on Race and Culture''
Published by Routledge in 1997, ''White'' examines the reproduction and preservation of whiteness in visual culture from roughly the 15th century to the late 20th century. From biblical images of the crucifixion to lithographs of Little Eva from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin to photographs of the Prince and Princess of Wales during the 1980s, the broad scope of this text allows Dyer to illustrate how whiteness has been and continues to be both invisible and hypervisible, everywhere and nowhere. Whiteness as both invisible and hypervisible occurs, Dyer argues, because whiteness is both registered on the individual body (through phenotype, behaviour, language, performances of class and sexuality, etc.) and exists beyond the corporeal. Understanding whiteness as being embodied within yet existing beyond corporeal subjects is accomplished through the lens of Christianity, race (or more specifically, notions of racial difference observed through differently appearing bodies), and imperialism. Central to these three political projects is what Dyer calls "the sexual reproductive economy of race", which signifies the ways in which whiteness is preserved and also threatened by heterosexuality (e.g. the conception of white offspring versus interracial relations that produce mixed race offspring). Hence the importance of images of the heterosexual white couple that will presumably preserve whiteness by conceiving white children.
One of the most compelling parts of his argument is the intra-racial boundary work among whites. Gender and class create a hierarchy among whites, wherein women are read as whiter ("purer") than men and those of a higher class status are whiter than the lower classes. The third chapter, "The Light of the World", is particularly important to this intra-racial boundary work in that it examines the relationship between beauty and whiteness and how white women are visually presented as whiter than their male counterparts through the use of light. Dyer is in conversation with scholars such as
David Roediger
David R. Roediger (born July 13, 1952) is the Foundation Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Kansas, where he has been since the fall of 2014. Previously, he was an American Kendrick C. Babcock Professor o ...
(author of ''The Wages of Whiteness'', 1991),
Tamsin Wilton (author of ''Immortal, Invisible: Lesbians and the Moving Image'', 1995) and Susan Jeffords (author of ''Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era'', 1994); and is therefore contributing to whiteness studies, film studies, and gender/sexuality studies.
Other notable works
''Stars'' (1979) was Dyer's first full-length book. In it he develops the idea that viewers' experience of a film is heavily influenced by the perception of its stars. Dyer analyses critics' writing, magazines, advertising and films to explore the significance of stardom, with particular reference to
Marlon Brando,
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
,
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
,
Jane Fonda,
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
,
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
,
Robert Redford,
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was si ...
and
John Wayne.
''Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society'' (1986) continues Dyer's extensive contribution to star studies.
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
,
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplish ...
, and Marilyn Monroe are the subjects of this text, and yet they are not what Dyer is most interested in. Instead, Dyer looks closely at the ways in which audiences simultaneously construct and consume a particular star's persona, in the process debunking common stereotypes about Garland, Monroe, and Robeson.
In his 2001 ''The Culture of Queers'', Dyer unpacks the oversimplified term "queer", arguing that it is a sexual identity not merely about specific sexual activities, but defines men who are attracted to other men and who possess other non-sexual attributes like being effeminate or hyper-masculine. Analysing films genres like
film noir and queer actors like
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Golde ...
, Dyer frames the trajectory of queer identification and culture with two major historical moments: the first use of the term "
homosexual" in 1869 and the
Stonewall Riots. Although well received within the academic community, some scholars have criticised the absence of
lesbianism in Dyer's definitions and delineation of queer cultural history.
In his 2011 ''In the Space of a Song: the Uses of Song in Film'', Dyer analyses
film musicals like ''
Meet Me in St. Louis
''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas film, Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith famil ...
'' and ''
A Star is Born'' to examine the role of song in film through the lens of race, gender, and sexuality.
Throughout his career he has been commissioned by the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
to write film analyses, some of which include ''Seven'' (1999) and ''Brief Encounter'' (1993). Thus Dyer is recognised as both an academic and film critic.
Public intellectual life
Outside academia, gay critic Dyer was an active and influential figure in the English
Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a ...
and contributed to the journal ''
Gay Left
Gay Left was a collective of gay men and a journal of the same name which they published every six months in London between the years 1975 and 1980. It was formed after the dissolution of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Marxist Gro ...
''. For example, his article ‘In Defence of Disco’ in ''Gay Left'' (1979), was one of the first to take disco seriously as an expression of the new gay consciousness. In his article, Dyer defends the genre of disco from critics that do not support it because of its crossover from the margins to mainstream. While critics say disco traded in its values for profit, Dyer maintains his support for the genre. He argues that just because something is affiliated with capitalism does not mean that it is capitalistic itself. He goes on to say that Disco is more than music; it is a culture, dance style, and language, and that it would take more than a crossover into mainstream to negate its significance. In addition to contributing to this journal, Dyer has also organized the first gay cinema event at the
National Film Theatre
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute.
His ...
in 1977. The event was accompanied by the publication of ''Gays and Film'', a collection of essays he edited.
Dyer has also appeared in several television documentaries. In 1991, he appeared in ''
Alma Cogan: The Girl with the Giggle In Her Voice''. In 1995 he contributed to the documentary film ''
The Celluloid Closet
''The Celluloid Closet'' is a 1995 American documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on Vito Russo's 1981 book ''The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies'', and on lecture and film clip ...
'', which explores the history of depictions of lesbians and gay men in American films and was first screened in the UK on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
on 5 September 1996. Five years later when the documentary was released on DVD, unused material was edited together to form a one-hour show entitled ''Rescued From the Closet''.
Awards
*
Society for Cinema and Media Studies The Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society for Cinema Studies) is an organization of professors and scholars. Its home office is at the University of Oklahoma, but it has members throughout the world.
SCMS holds an annual confer ...
Honorary Life Membership, 2007
* Honorary Doctorate,
University of Turku
sv, Åbo universitet
, latin_name = Universitas Aboensis
, image_name = University of Turku.svg
, motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle''
, established = 1920
, type ...
, 2007
* Distinguished Adjunct Professor in Film Studies,
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...
, 2009
*
James Robert Brudner '83 Memorial Prize,
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, 2014-2015
* Honorary Doctorate,
Bordeaux Montaigne University
Bordeaux Montaigne University (French: ''Université Bordeaux Montaigne''; formerly ''Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3'') is a public university in Pessac, France, approximately 8 kilometres (5 miles) southwest of the city centre of B ...
, 2018
Selected bibliography
Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Journal articles
*
See also
*
Gay icon
A gay icon is a public figure who is regarded as a cultural icon of some members of the LGBT community.
The most widely recognized gay icons are often actresses and singers who garnered large LGBT fanbases, such as Judy Garland, Madonna, Diana Ros ...
*
Queer Cinema
"New Queer Cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in ''Sight & Sound'' magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s.
It is also referred to as the "Queer Ne ...
*
Queer Theory
References
External links
Richard Dyerat the
IKKM,
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
*
*
*
*
Interview Richard Dyerat
Birmingham University
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyer, Richard
1945 births
Living people
English film critics
British gay writers
Gay academics
British LGBT rights activists
Academics of King's College London
Academics of the University of Warwick
LGBT studies academics