Guide to the Linda Williams papers, 1945-2020

(bulk 1962-2016)

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2024

Collection Overview

Title:	Linda Williams papers
Date range:	1945-2020, (1962-2016)
Creator:	Williams, Linda 1946-
Extent:	25 Linear Feet (24 record center cartons, 1 file box, and 2 half-file boxes)
Abstract:	This collection contains the papers of Linda Williams, Professor Emerita in Film & Media and Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. Her academic interests center on Feminist Theory and "body genres," genres designed to elicit a specific physical reaction. These include pornography, melodrama, and horror. Other areas of focus in both research and teachings include "race" films, Oscar Micheaux, Spike Lee, Surrealist cinema, David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Luis Buñuel, film theory, musicals, and the HBO series "The Wire." Materials in this collection date from approximately 1945 to 2020 and document her academic career through correspondence, conference materials, teaching, writings, and research.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	Ms.2015.011

Scope & content

This collection contains the papers of Linda Williams, Professor Emerita in Film & Media and Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. Her academic interests center on film studies, feminist theory, and "body genres," genres designed to elicit a specific physical reaction. These include pornography, melodrama, and horror. Other areas of focus in both research and teachings include "race" films, Oscar Micheaux, Spike Lee, Surrealist cinema, David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Luis Buñuel, film theory, musicals, and the HBO series "The Wire." Materials in this collection date from approximately 1945 to 2020 and document her academic career through correspondence, conference materials, teaching, writings, and research. The collection is arranged into two subgroups by accession. Original folder titles created by Williams are listed in quotation marks while the processor created the remaining folder titles.

Subgroup 1, First Accession, 1945-2010, is arranged roughly in its original order. Researchers will note Williams' scholarly interest in pornography studies and film, given the size and scope of related material. Subgroup 1 also highlights the way Williams arranged her own files, intermixing handwritten film notes along with items like course lectures. Williams may have developed some of this material into publications, such as Williams seminal text Hardcore: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible" (1999).

Series 1, Pornography, 1962-2010, documents Linda Williams' research on pornography. The majority of this material pertains to the second edition of her book, Hard Core, published in 1999, with new material focusing on pornography outside the white heterosexual sphere as well as pornography in the age of the Internet. It is made up of three subseries: Film Notes, Research by Author, and Research by Subject. "Film Notes" contain handwritten notes and observations on a variety of pornographic and/or erotic films, as well as collected newspaper or magazine articles pertaining to those works. The "Research by Author" subseries contains collected relevant scholarly materials arranged by author's last name. The "Research by Subject" subseries collects Williams' pornography research by subject. This subseries includes newspaper and magazine articles. This subseries also contains two research binders that would evolve as the basis of the first edition of her seminal work, Hard Core (first edition, 1989). Also interspersed within this series is personal communication or ephemera between Williams and artists working in pornography. Most significant among these are important figures Radley Metzger, Annie Sprinkle, and Nina Hartley. Newspaper articles have been photocopied for preservation purposes.

Series 2, General Film Notes and Reviews, 1945-2002, documents Williams' research of non-pornography based films. Materials include handwritten notes and collected film reviews arranged alphabetically by film title.

Series 3, Teaching Materials, 1962-2008, documents some of Williams' teaching career and is arranged into 5 subseries according to the general topic of each course: Feminist Theory Courses; Musicals; Pornography Courses; "Provocation of Desire;" and Race Movies. Within each subseries, files are divided into course packets and research. Course packets include correspondence, course descriptions, notes, paper assignments and related questions of inquiry, reading lists, selected readings, and syllabi, and among other materials. Research files include Williams' notes and articles that relate directly to each course and that likely contributed to course development.

Series 4, Conference Materials, 1992-2008, documents Williams' participation at professional conferences, either as an attendee or a speaker. Files are arranged alphabetically by topic and include correspondence, programs, schedules, papers, and other talks presented by Williams.

Series 5, Other Research Materials, 1952-2000, documents Williams' scholarly research likely for publication. Files are arranged alphabetically by topic and include film lists, film reviews, notes, articles, drafts, photographs, and posters, among other items.

Series 6, Restricted Material – First Accession, 1990-2007, contains restricted files pulled from throughout the collection. Files are arranged alphabetically by topic and include name lists, student papers, and course packets that also contain evaluations by students and other student records. Files are closed for 80 years from the date of creation.

Subgroup 2, Second Accession, 1968-2020, is arranged by the processors into six additional series by record type. In subgroup 2, researchers will find a trove of response letters to the publication of Hardcore, teaching materials including syllabi and class lectures, writings by Williams including a set of unpublished talks, and a large batch of research notes about films, directors, and "body genre" topics such as emotion and violence, among many other subjects. Subgroup 2 also contains a small batch of additional restricted materials.

Series, 7, Personal and Biographical, 1968-2019, includes address books, correspondence, education and fellowship files, interviews, photographs, and planners. Note that there is a run of folders labeled, "Invitations/gigs" re: engagements Williams attended or where she presented talks, including at conferences and film festivals. This series of folders maintains Williams' original folder titles as shown in quotation marks. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series, 8, Teaching,1973-2017, includes syllabi, typed lectures, and annotated readings for various courses taught by Williams. Courses include "American Melodrama," "Cinema and Sex Act," and "Serial Television and the Case of the Wire." This series is arranged alphabetically by course title.

Series 9, Writings and Related, 1987-2020, includes proposals, agreements, correspondence, and reader comments related to various articles, books, and talks authored by Willams. The bulk of the material in this series is related to Williams' book, Hardcore, but other titles include the article, "Skin Flicks," and talk, "Body Genres Reconsidered." This series is arranged alphabetically by project format then by title.

Series 10, Writings by Others, 1970-2020, includes correspondence and printed, typed, and handwritten drafts by other scholars. Scholars of note include Judith Butler, Shoshana Feldman, and Robyn Weigman. The writings may also contain annotations by Williams. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by author's last name then by title of their work.

Series 11, Research Notes and Related, 1974-2018, contains extensive handwritten notes by Williams along with photocopied readings about films, as well as people and general topics. Subjects include "emotion," "melodrama and race, "Roots, and "The Wire." This subseries is arranged alphabetically by topic.

Series 12, Restricted Material – Second Accession, 2012, contains one folder of confidential employment information that is closed for 50 years until January 1, 2074, after which date this series will open without restriction.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Metzger, Radley
• Sprinkle, Annie

Subject Organizations

• Feminist Theory Archive.
• Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women.

Subject Topics

• Feminist theory
• Musicals
• Race in motion pictures
• Pornography
• Erotic films – history and criticism
• Melodramas (motion pictures)

Occupations

• Film teachers

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into 12 series.

Biographical / Historical

Linda Williams, Professor Emerita in Film & Media and Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. Her academic interests center on film studies, feminist theory, and "body genres," genres designed to elicit a specific physical reaction. These include pornography, melodrama, and horror. Other areas of focus in both research and teachings include "race" films, Oscar Micheaux, Spike Lee, Surrealist cinema, David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Luis Buñuel, film theory, musicals, and the HBO series "The Wire."

Williams earned her PhD at the University of Colorado in 1977. She taught at The University of Illinois from 1977 to 1989, first as an Assistant Professor of English, and then in 1984 as an Associate Professor of English. Her first position as a Professor of Film Studies was at The University of California, Irvine from 1989 to 1997. She has worked at the University of California, Berkeley since 1997 and was their Director of Program in Film Studies until her retirement in 2015.

In 1989, Williams published her groundbreaking study of pornographic film entitled, Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible (second edition 1999). This pioneering text on moving-image pornography took a serious look at the history and form of this most prevalent of genres. Other books include a psychoanalytic study of surrealist cinema (Figures of Desire, 1981), a co-edited volume of feminist film criticism (Re-vision, 1984), Viewing Positions (1993), Screening Sex (2008), Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White, From Uncle Tom to OJ Simpson (2001), and On the Wire (2014), a study of the HBO television series. She has also edited a collection of essays on pornography called Porn Studies (Duke, 2004).

She received Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 and in 2011 was appointed Faculty Research Lecturer. In 2013, Williams received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

In May, 2020, Williams experienced a severe stroke, leaving her paralyzed on the left side and mostly blind. Though this experience significantly affected her personal and professional life, Williams has continued her award-winning research.

In 2022, British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies honored her with the Outstanding Achievement Award. Though she could not attend the virtual event live, she was interviewed and it was shown at the awards.

In December 2023, on the 10th Anniversary of the British journal Porn Studies, Berkeley faculty organized a symposium in her honor with speakers honoring her work in the field. The talks will be published in the Summer 2024 issue of Porn Studies.

In addition to professional honors, Duke University Press will be publishing an unfinished manuscript of Williams based on her research comparing the history of the origin of French and American film. In it, Williams argues the melodramatic mode in both France and the USA should be emphasized more than the "classical." Approximately fifteen scholars in the field have replied to her manuscript, which will be published in 2024-2025 with the title, Melodrama as Provocateur.

Linda Williams continues to reside in California with her husband, Paul Fitzgerald.

Biographical note modified from: http://filmmedia.berkeley.edu/faculty-profile/linda-williams

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except for Series 6 and 12, RESTRICTED, which are closed for 50 years until January 1, 2074, after which date this series will open without restriction. The collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view any audiovisual media or born-digital records that may exist in this collection. Audiovisual media and born-digital records in this collection may not have been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical audiovisual or born-digital media is restricted.
Use of the materials:	All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, available on the John Hay Library website or by request, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Linda Williams papers, MS-2015-011, Box [#], Folder [#], Pembroke Center Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Gift of Linda Williams in 2015.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Catherine Stebbins, Alissa Simon, Anna Steinberg, and Mary Murphy on behalf of the Pembroke Center for the Teaching and Research on Women and the Brown University Library.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-05-15.
Descriptive rules:	Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Sponsor:	Curatorial work provided by Mary O. Murphy on behalf of Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women on behalf of the Brown University Library.

Additional Information

Inventory

---