Description
Book SynopsisSCMS Award Winner Best Edited Collection
The standard analytical category of national cinema has increasingly been called into question by the category of the transnational. This anthology examines the premises and consequences of the coexistence of these two categories and the parameters of historiographical approaches that cross the borders of nation-states. The three sections of World Cinemas, Transnational Perspectives cover the geopolitical imaginary, transnational cinematic institutions, and the uneven flow of words and images.
Trade Review'this splendid book investigates the ways in whihc cinema operates internationally and interconnectedly.' - Choice
'Many of these essays open new avenues of investigation that will keep scholars busy for a generation.' - Choice
"This book is a timely and important contribution toward updating film studies in accordance with the changed context in which the discipline now finds itself." --Transnational Cinemas
"The editors of World Cinemas, Transnational Perspectives might well have added ‘Cinema in the Age of Transnational Reproduction’ as the subtitle of their engaging volume. The contributors parse and elucidate the proliferating typology of emergent national, international, transnational, world, multinational, postnational, paranational, and global cinema practices and theories worldwide. They take into consideration the changing sociopolitical, financial, industrial, technological, and demographic changes that underpin these cinematic developments. The result is a fascinating textual and contextual reader on our current moment of globalization."--Hamid Naficy, Northwestern University, author of An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking.
"This ambitious and intellectually engaging volume succeeds in its aim to rethink the geopolitical imaginary of film studies as a discipline, by reconsidering film historiography beyond the nation-state and focusing instead on a variety of transnational formations. Essays by leading scholars provide not only new theoretical and methodological approaches, but also illuminating case studies and discussions of the comparative process itself, deepening and expanding our understanding of world cinemas in a revised frame of film history. World Cinemas, Transnational Perspectives represents the very best in film scholarship today."--Patrice Petro, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, author of Aftershocks of the New: Feminism and Film History
"This splendid book investigates the ways in which cinema operates internationally and interconnectedly. Durovicovi and Newman (both, Univ. of Iowa) argue that in the current era of globalization, studying particular national cinemas, particular genres, or narrowly focused theories in isolation no longer makes sense. The volume includes essays on international financing and production, worldwide distribution, audience reception, the interpretation of genres and styles (think kung-fu goes to Bollywood--or to Bulawayo), and the hybridization of theory. This reviewer especially admired Paul Willeman's "Fantasy in Action." Many of these essays open new avenues of investigation that will keep scholars busy for a generation. Summing up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --W.A. Vincent, Michigan State University
Table of ContentsPreface
Part One: The Geopolitical Imaginary of Cinema Studies
1. Transnational Film Theory: Decentered Subjectivity, Decentered Capitalism Kathleen Newman
2. On the Plurality of Cinematic Transnationalism Mette Hjort
3. Tracking "Global Media" in the Outposts of Globalization Bhaskar Sarkar
4. Time Zones and Jetlag: The Flows and Phases of World Cinema Dudley Andrew
5. Vector, Flow, Zone: Towards a History of Cinematic Translatio Nataša Durovicová
Part Two: Cinema as Transnational Exchange
6. Chinese Cinema and Transnational Film Studies Yingjin Zhang
7. A National Cinema Abroad: From Production to Viewing Toby Miller
8. Aural Identity, Genealogies of Sound Technologies, and Hispanic Transnationality on Screen Marvin D’Lugo
9. How Movies Move (Between Hong Kong and Bulawayo, Between Screen and Stage...) Lesley Stern
10. New Paradoxes of Africa’s Cinemas Olivier Barlet
11. The Transnational Other: Street Kids in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema João Luiz Vieira
Part Three: Comparative Perspectives
12. Fantasy in Action Paul Willemen
13. Vernacular Modernism: Tracking Cinema on a Global Scale Miriam Hansen
14. Globalization and Hybridization Fredric Jameson
15. From Playtime to The World: The Expansion and Depletion of Space Within Global Economies Jonathan Rosenbaum
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
