Generic Convergence in Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes .
This essay shall approach this challenge with reference to two of Hawks' films: Only Angels Have Wings and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Both films will be interpreted according to the critical schematics of Peter Wollen and Jacques Rivette. It will be argued that while Rivette's thematic analysis of the dichotomy of Hawks' films implies a bi-polar opposition between order and chaos, Wollen's focus on the characters as exemplifying the dramatic and the comic allows us to more closely perceive the workings of gender that underlies the comic/dramatic dichotomy in Hawks' work. In this analysis, it will be shown how Hawks' dramas are definitively male, with the masculine gender representing the dominant order, and the feminine a threat to that order. Conversely, it will be seen that in Hawks' comedies order has given way to chaos, and the landscape is dominated by women with males being - in general - figures of impotence and powerlessness. 6 pgs. bibliography lists 2 sources.
