John Bruns

Professor

John Bruns is Professor of Film Studies and is also a faculty affiliate of the Women's and Gender Studies Program. John's first book, Loopholes: Reading Comically (Routledge, 2014), was reissued in paperback with a new introduction. The book takes classic and contemporary theories of comedy and applies them to a variety of topics in film, literature and culture. Andrew McConnell Stott calls it "the essential next step in the discussion and a must for humor scholars everywhere." He is the author of Hitchcock's People, Places, and Things (Northwestern University Press, 2019). He has also co-authored with Charles Ramírez Berg a film history textbook entitled Essential Film History: The Evolution of Movie Storytelling (University of Texas Press, 2026). He is currently working on a book entitled The Myth of Total Spielberg: Reading André Bazin Through Contemporary Hollywood (SUNY Press).

Education

Ph.D., Film, Literature & Culture, University of Southern California

M.A., English, University of Southern California

B.A., Film, Television & Theater/English, University of Notre Dame

Research Interests

  • Film history, theory, criticism
  • Cultural studies
  • Literary theory
  • Comedy
  • Feminist theory

Courses Taught

ENGL 110: Introduction to Academic Writing

ENGL 212: The Cinema: History & Criticism

ENGL 351: Studies in American Film - Hollywood Genres

ENGL 370: Special Topics - Major Literary Genres

ENGL 390: Special Topics in Film - Alfred Hitchcock

ENGL 390: Special Topics in Film - American Cinema of the 1970s

ENGL 390: Special Topics in Film - Global City Cinema

ENGL 490: Senior Seminar in Film

ENGL 560: Film Studies

ENGL 720: Internship in Teaching Film

Recent Publications

"Checking In and Checking Out: Vertigo's McKittrick Hotel." Fears of Falling: New Essays on Vertigo, edited by Daniel Varndell (forthcoming, SUNY Press).

“Hitchcock’s Sinking Feeling: Gravity and Disequilibrium in Rebecca.” Hitchcock Annual, Volume 26, edited by Sidney Gottlieb. Columbia University Press, 2023, pp. 77-100.

"The Dark Comedy Side of Genius." Review essay. Hitchcock Annual 24, Columbia University Press, 2021, pp. 80-105.

"Under Capricorn: Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes." Under Capricorn: 70 Years On. Conference Proceedings, Sep. 5-6, 2019, King's College, London, edited by Stéphane Duckett and Charles Barr, Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Universities of Warwick, Reading, and Oxford, 2021.

Hitchcock's People, Places, and Things. Northwestern University Press, 2019

"Tony Curtis in Sweet Smell of Success." Close-Up: Great Cinematic Performances, Vol. 1: America. Ed. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2018.