Wartime cinema, Englishness and propaganda

Michael Powell and the 'Pressburger Touch'

By: Ina Habermann

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Hardcover | 30 September 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
330 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 1.91

Hardcover

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This book provides a fresh analysis of the wartime work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and their team 'the Archers'. It argues that in their earlier work, Powell and Pressburger should be seen as middlebrow storytellers whose stories explore national identity in times of war. Their wartime work is discussed in four phases: While the first phase covers their contributions to the 'phoney war', the second traces their engagement with the 'people's war'. The third phase sees the Archers move beyond propaganda, towards memodramas of Englishness, cross-cultural alliances and quests for spiritual modernity. The fourth phase dramatizes post-war preoccupations with an increasing focus on memory and trauma. Following up these thematic concerns, the conclusion is devoted to Pressburger's later work, including his two published novels Killing a Mouse on Sunday and The Glass Pearls.

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