Film and history / James Chapman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chapman, James, author.

Series:

Theory and history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures and history.

History in motion pictures.

Performing arts.

Physical Description:

ix, 181 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, N.Y. : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

Film is the pre-eminent mass medium of the modern age. It is a valuable source of evidence for the study of both the past and the contemporary world, and is a social practice that has affected the lives of millions. How can historians engage with this important and influential medium? Written for both students and teachers, Film and History: provides a concise, accessible introduction to the use of film in historical enquiry and a summary of the main theoretical debates, charts the development of film history as a subject area and a discipline in its own right, considers different approaches to film history, including film as an art form, as ideology, as a historical source, and as a social practice, includes case studies to ground discussion of theories and approaches in specific examples. Wide-ranging and authoritative, Film and History equips students with the methods both to analyse film texts and to understand the place of film in history and culture. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 A Brief History of Film History 7

'Standard Version' histories and the rise of narrative film 8

Revisionist histories: reconsidering early cinema 12

Sociological film histories: Siegfried Kracauer and German cinema 16

Institutional, economic and technological histories 19

The rise and fall of 'Screen theory' 23

New Film History 27

2 Film as an Art Form 31

Classical film aesthetics 32

The formative tradition 33

The realist tradition 38

Auteur theory and its variants 42

David Bordwell and the historical poetics of cinema 48

Case study: Citizen Kane (1941) and the masterpiece tradition 51

3 Film and Ideology 55

Cinema as an ideological apparatus 56

The Gramscian turn 59

Structuralism and semiotics 61

Feminist film theories 64

Postcolonialism and cinema 67

Case study: Third Cinema 69

4 Film as a Historical Source 73

From 'film and history' to 'film history' 74

Actuality, authenticity, realism 78

The nature of filmic evidence 80

Robert Rosenstone and the 'New History film' 86

Case study: Winstanley (1975) 87

5 Film as a Social Practice 90

Feature films as a reflection of society 91

Beyond reflectionism: contextual film histories 94

Genre theory and criticism 99

Case study: film noir - 'a dark mirror to post-war America' 103

6 A Historical Sociology of Film 108

Histories of production 109

Histories of reception 114

Histories of audiences 118

Case study: researching British cinema audiences 121.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230363878

0230363873

9780230363861

0230363865

OCLC:

852225095