Linda Williams (born 1946) is a professor of film studies in the departments of Film Studies and Rhetoric at University of California, Berkeley.
Williams graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a B.A in Comparative Literature 1969, and then gained a PhD at the University of Colorado. Her main academic areas of interest are; film history, film genre, melodrama, pornography, feminist theory and visual culture; all with an emphasis on women, gender, and sexuality.
Regarding film genres, she argues that horror, melodrama, and pornography all fall into the category of "body genres", since they are each designed to elicit physical reactions on the part of viewers. Horror is designed to elicit spine-chilling, white-knuckled, eye-bulging terror; melodramas are designed to make elicit sympathy (tears) after seeing the misfortunes of the onscreen characters; and pornography is designed to elicit sexual arousal.
Famous quotes containing the word williams:
“If you give me a short shot I will attack you. I’m not a baseliner who rallies. I try to get the point over with.”
—Venus Williams (b. 1980)