Chapter 7 incorporates material from my essay “Silence and Stasis” in The Language and Style of Film Criticism, ed. Alex Clayton and Andrew Klevan (London: Routledge, 2011). An earlier version of the reading of Vertigo in Chapter 11 appears in Vertigo (Philosophers on Film), ed. Katalan Makkai (London: Routledge, 2012). Chapter 15 incorporates material from my reading of Marnie in Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, 2nd ed. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012). Portions of Chapter 16 are adapted from “The Universal Hitchcock,” in A Companion to Alfred Hitchcock, ed. Thomas Leitch and Leland Poague (New York: Wiley Blackwell, 2011).
Marian Keane read drafts of the manuscript with extraordinary care and, with her customary perceptiveness, intellectual honesty, and persuasiveness, pulled no punches in making me recognize, among other things, that a book subtitled “Emersonian Perfectionism and the Films of Alfred Hitchcock” had to say more about Emerson than I had said in early drafts. Marian’s comments on the manuscript, not to mention our many, many years of inimitable conversations, have led this to be a far better book. Conversations with James Laff helped me enormously in achieving the perspective on Emerson’s work articulated especially in the introduction and the conclusion.
I am grateful to John Paul Russo, George Toles, and Charles Warren for their supportive and insightful comments on drafts of this manuscript, and to Murray Pomerance, both for our always provocative conversations about Hitchcock and for the inspiration I’ve drawn from his writings.
More than a word of thanks is also in order to the brilliant and dedicated master’s and graduate students Eric Browning, Michael Hable, Oscar Jubis, Ian Pettigrew, Funing Tang, and Ricardo Zuleta, who helped make my teaching a joy for me during the time I was writing this book, and to my colleagues in the University of Miami Department of Cinema and Interactive Media.
My debt to Stanley Cavell, my teacher and friend, is immeasurable.
Kitty, the love of my life, is my greatest blessing.