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- Research student wins international essay prize
PhD student Jack Rundell wins prestigious international essay prize
Posted on 17 January 2014
Jack Rundell spent three months doing research at the Library of Congress in Autumn 2012, on an AHRC International Placement Scheme scholarship. He wins $500 and publication of his essay in a top film historical journal.
His supervisor, Professor Judith Buchanan, said, 'It is a credit to Jack's conscientious scholarship, originality and hard work that this considerable honour from Domitor has come his way. It is very well deserved.' Domitor is the international society for the study of early cinema.
Jack's prize-winning essay
In his essay Jack argues that when Chaplin rose to fame in 1915, his popularity was widely perceived as a passing craze even among those who recognised him as an outstanding film comedian. This contemporary perception has been minimised by Chaplin scholars, who prefer to concentrate on the profound and enduring aspects of Chaplin’s art.
He contends that the natures of Chaplin’s early career can be more fully understood, and his early films more richly enjoyed, if we take the idea of ephemerality more seriously. He argues that the Chaplin craze should be recognised as an event, and, like the best and zaniest of Chaplin’s early films, a volatile and unpredictable event that participated in, and reflected, a turbulent and transformational moment in the emergence of twentieth century mass culture.