At least half the picture: sound and narration in the postwar / pre-Dolby American film

Unrestricted This dissertation: (a) argues that the time between the end of World War Two and the introduction of Dolby technology constitutes a distinct historical period in the American sound film and labels this the "postwar / pre-Dolby era"; (b) offers case studies of Hollywood films, avant-garde films, documentary films, and an animated film from the identified time period; and (c) on the basis of these case studies, complicates the synchronous / a synchronous dichotomy, the diegetic / nondiegetic binary, and the classical hierarchy of image over sound. In sum, the dissertation argues that the study of film history needs to more fully acknowledge the centralityof sound and the study of film sound needs to become more historical.; The dissertation discusses changes in the production, aesthetics and exhibition of American films in the postwar / pre-Dolby era. Films in this period present sound as something more than a support for the image and narrative. The foregrounding of sound in film narration is a return to the uncontrolled sound of the pre-classical era and explains the uses and presentation of sound in the Dolby era. This leads to a reconfiguration of the classical period's limitations on sound as the exception, rather than the norm, of cinema. The discussion puts forth a theorization of film narration as the combination of sound and image because film is an audiovisual medium.; Topics also include: magnetic sound, stereo sound, surround sound, voiceover narration, the use of rock music as performance and underscore, the direct aural address of the audience, and the combination of voice and body in films that admit the two do not naturally or inevitably belong together.本论文：(a) 论证第二次世界大战结束至杜比技术（Dolby technology）问世这一时期，构成美国有声电影史上一个独特的历史阶段，并将其命名为"战后/杜比前时代"；(b) 选取该时期的好莱坞电影、先锋派电影、纪录片与动画电影开展案例研究；(c) 基于上述案例，对"同步/非同步"二元对立、"叙事内（diegetic）/叙事外（nondiegetic）"二分法，以及"图像凌驾于声音之上"的经典层级提出了更为复杂的审视与重构。总而言之，本论文主张电影史研究应更充分地正视声音的核心地位，而电影声音研究也应更具历史纵深。 本论文探讨了战后/杜比前时代美国电影在制作、美学与放映环节的变革。该时期的电影不再将声音仅作为图像与叙事的支撑载体，而是将声音在电影叙事中的前景化处理，视作对前经典时期不受约束的声音美学的回归，并由此阐释了杜比时代电影声音的应用与呈现逻辑。这一研究重新界定了经典时期将声音视为电影"例外而非常态"的局限。本论述提出，电影作为视听媒介，其叙事本质是声音与图像的有机结合。 本论文探讨的主题还包括：磁性录音声音、立体声（stereo sound）、环绕声（surround sound）、旁白配音，将摇滚乐用作表演配乐与情节配乐的手法，直接面向观众的听觉叙事，以及在那些展现"人声与肢体并非天然或必然绑定"的影片中，人声与肢体的结合方式。