Morris, Nigel

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Morris, Nigel

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Stirling, B.A. (with honors); Keele University, M.A. (American literature); University of Wales, P.G.C.E.; University of London, M.A. (education).

ADDRESSES:

Office—Media Production, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS, England. E-mail—nmorris@lincoln.ac.uk.

CAREER:

University of Lincoln, Lincoln, England, principal lecturer in media theory, beginning 2000; has also been a lecturer and teacher in Wales and Nigeria.

WRITINGS:

The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light, Wallflower (London, England), 2007.

Contributor of essays and articles to collections, including D.H. Lawrence: A Reference Companion, edited by Paul Poplawski, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996; Gothic Modernisms, edited by Andrew Smith and Jeff Wallace, Palgrave (Basingstoke, Hampshire, England), 2001; An Encyclopedia of Literary Modernism 1895-1939, edited by Paul Poplawski, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2003; and Reading Makeover Television, edited by Dana Heller, I.B. Tauris (London, England), 2007. Contributor to periodicals, including Movie, Journal for the Study of British Cultures, and Planet: The Welsh Internationalist.

SIDELIGHTS:

Nigel Morris is the author of The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light, a study of the works of a filmmaker who a writer for the Columbia University Press Web site called "cinema's most successful director" and "a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration." To Morris, the phrase "cinema of Steven Spielberg" means not only the individual movies made by the American filmmaker and director, but also the genres launched by his huge commercial successes, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Schindler's List, Amistad, and Munich. Even more, according to Morris, the phrase evokes the themes and vision that Spielberg pursues in his works. The writer points out that the filmmaker references other films and popular culture in ways reminiscent of postmodernists working in other genres. Morris concludes that Spielberg is a serious director and producer, and a person worthy of significant critical attention. "The Cinema of Steven Spielberg," asserted a writer on the University of Lincoln Department of Media Production Web site, "has been described by Thomas Schatz, Executive Director, University of Texas Film Institute, as ‘an impressive, important book: the definitive study of the defining filmmaker of our time.’"