Proposal Review Questionnaire

Thank you for agreeing to offer your opinion of this proposal. The questions on this form are simply intended as a guide, so
please feel free to include any additional comments you think might be useful. Your review will remain anonymous, unless
you instruct us otherwise.




1. What courses are you currently involved in teaching? Please list course title, level and number of students.

On sabbatical this year. I generally teach a wide range of film courses that are discipline specific and
historically/culturally contextual.


2. What is your initial impression of the proposal?

The proposal is a pleasure to read. It is lively, informative, and keenly aware of its subjects history and place in film
and cultural-studies scholarship.

3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed book?

Because we are dealing with only a small sampling of the project, my remarks are obviously confined to the
proposals promise and with chapter one in relationship to the way this promise might be met.

In the first instance, the proposal is a joy to read. From the outset I am drawn into the way the author stages
Hitchcock and the immediate way the media framed Hitchcocks body on his arrival in the US. In this way, we are
introduced to a new way to see Hitchcock as a cultural and historical concept. This is to say, with the medias initial
reading of Hitchcocks body as fat, his arrival as a film wunderkind became forever linked with his body. As the
author states, studying Hitchcock through a semiotic lens is important because his appetite (and richly detailed by
McKittrick with menus and such) can be discursively linked to his filmmaker and stature as a cultural icon. The
proposal puts this perfectly:

You are what you eat may be a glib formulation, though it helpfully gestures to the very human
inclination to understand ones profession of tastes as constitutive of character and personality, in
culture at large, but also particularly in film narrative.

Moreover, a detailed study of Hitchcocksuch as the one proposed hereopens us to timely contemporary issues
about body image, gender, and (significantly) class:

The social and medical problem of obesitya category that had remained distinct from the plump
Victorian gentlemans bodyonce recognized as a specifically masculine malady, became discursively
constructed as a female illness. The fat body, in Britain and especially America, lost its connections to
the social elite, and became closely associated with the indeterminately ethnic immigrant and
working class body

4.

5.

6.

To my mind, the implication for the class connection is invaluable, particularly given Hitchcocks narrative interests.
The bio-historical material presented in the proposaland if carried through in the larger projectwill prove to be a
rewarding contribution to conceptions of the body in relationship to media representation. Indeed, menus, weight-
charts, and other archival documents make the proposal an enticing read.

At this stage, my only criticism is that the first chapter not as neatly presented as the Introduction. This is
important because the blocked paragraphs and single-spacing detracted from what is clearly smartly conceived
prose. I encourage the author to polish all aspects of any further submitted material.

Does the proposed book cover the topic adequately? Is there anything missing or anything surplus to requirements? If
yes, please provide details.

From what is available, the book appears to cover its topic thoroughly.

Is the proposed structure and organization appropriate? If you can suggest any improvements, please do so below.

Again, at this stage I believe it is appropriately organized.
Do you know of the author and his or her work? Do you feel the author is suitable to write on this topic for this
audience?

Yes, I am familiar with the authors work and believe that he will present a rewarding project.

7.

8.

9.

Do you know of any other books on the same or similar topic? How do they compare to this proposal?

No

What would be the primary audience for the book? Please be specific in your answer if faculty, which disciplines and,
if students, which courses.
Hitchcock is not dissimilar to auteur studies (and of course they are linked). What I mean by this is that an ongoing
interest continues around these topics in film studies as well as the general reading public.

Although the project is at a very early stage, based on this proposal, do you envisage:
a. Making the book required reading for your students? (excerpts)

b. Adding the book to a reading list for your students?


c. Recommending the book as a library purchase?


d. None of the above





Feel free to select more than one. Please explain your answer below.


10. Based on this proposal, how would you frankly describe the book to a friend or colleague?
I would describe this book as a delightful and rigorous read of what can be viewed as an over-done topic. I would
discuss the book as an ideal and provocative methodological approach to film and cultural studies. It is a fine
example of interdisciplinary methodology.


11. Do you recommend we pursue publication? Please explain your answer.
I do. I think that because the writing is so sharp it draws a reader into what is the obvious (Hitchcock is fat) but
opens the obvious to a more interesting set of questions: How did Hitchcocks weight become representative of the

master of suspense? To what extent does his weight, his image as such, bear on the way we look at his films and
think about the Hitchcockian as a concept?

If the book, as a whole, can sustain the elegant writing and provocative thesis, the review-publication process should
continue.


12. Do you have any additional comments on the proposal?


13. Please let us know if you would prefer to remain anonymous or if you are happy for us to reveal your identity to the
author.

If the editor believes it to be of value, I am comfortable with revealing my identity.



Many thanks again for taking the time to answer these questions; your comments are going to be extremely helpful.
We are always interested in hearing feedback from the academic community, so please dont hesitate to get in touch if you
have any comments on our publishing or if you would be interested in discussing any of your own writing plans.







14. Please provide your name and academic affiliation below. (We will not pass your details on to anyone else.)
David A. Gerstner
CUNY
Graduate Center and College of Staten Island


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