Background
David Norman Rodowick was born on August 27, 1952, in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, to Rudolph Judson and Betty Jane (Madden) Rodowick.
Austin, TX 78712, USA
In 1976, Rodowick received Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, and Master of Arts in 1979.
75005 Paris, France
From 1977 to 1978, Rodowick also was a graduate study at Université de Paris III and Centre Américain du Cinema, in Paris, France.
Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
In 1983, Rodowick obtained Ph.D. in communications and theater arts at the University of Iowa.
David Norman Rodowick was born on August 27, 1952, in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, to Rudolph Judson and Betty Jane (Madden) Rodowick.
In 1976, Rodowick received Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, and Master of Arts in 1979. From 1977 to 1978, he also was a graduate study at Université de Paris III and Centre Américain du Cinema, in Paris, France. In 1983, Rodowick obtained Ph.D. in communications and theater arts at the University of Iowa.
From 1978 to 1983, Rodowick worked as a filmmaker and video artist. He also worked as an associate professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, from 1983 to 1991, he worked in comparative literature and director of film studies, and as the founder and director of film studies program from 1986 to 1991. Rodowick also was a professor of English and Visual/Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, in 1992, and a director of the film studies program from 1993 to 1997.
As a visiting professor of Film Studies, he worked at the University of Iowa in 1988, and from 1991 to 1992, as a visiting associate professor of English at the University of Rochester. He also was a guest professor in film studies at the University of Vienna in 1998. Rodowick was a member of the editorial board. From 1997 to 1999, he worked at the Publication of the Modem Language Association and iris, he was an advisory editor for Camera Obscura at the University of California, in Santa Barbara, and advisory board member of Atlantida Review in Madrid, Spain.
Modernism, to Rodowick, is a political film subject, portrayed in an avant-garde style with an emphasis on language or cinema. But Rodowick warns that modernism is no trend or movement in its own right. Instead, it represents film evolution in the years after 1968.
In his work The Difficulty of Difference: Psychoanalysis, Sexual Difference, and Film Theory Rodowick elaborates further on film theory through the context of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theories. Rodowick uses these theories to explain sexual and gender differences in film theory. Rodowick does not focus on specific films but instead works with feminist film theorists to develop thoughts on “the power of the female gaze both within films and among audience members.” In looking at spectatorship’s role in film theory, the author moves beyond traditional theories that suggest opposite characteristics among male and female viewers and instead suggest that sexual identity in film theory is still evolving and far from predetermined. But Rodowick makes the point that much of film theory is still dominated by conceptions of opposite roles for men and women. He proposes a method of film theory that analyzes the film text to come up with new paradigms for theoretical consideration.
Rodowick’s focus on Hollywood films is disap¬pointingly brief, given the focus that the American film industry has provided toward psychoanalysis in film theory. Rodowick fails to make a case for the contribution of psychoanalysis to a historical and materialist analysis of mass culture. The author has nonetheless raised important issues in film theory.
Rodowick is a member Modern Language Association.
On May 28, 1997, Rodowick married Dominique Eliane Bluher. They have a daughter Sarah Louise Dominique.