Film Theory: An Introduction

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The discussion of Bakhtin was somewhat unfocused, however, and I was never sure exactly how his ideas were being applied. Another field of intervention for Stam has been in cultural theory, especially in Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film (Johns Hopkins, 1989), the first book-length study to extrapolate for film and cultural studies Bakhtin's conceptual categories, such as “translinguistics” and “dialogism” and the “carnivalesque.

Stam has published widely on French literature, comparative literature, and on film topics such as film history and film theory. Kui enda filmiteoreetiline pagas veel hõre on, siis vōib tekst vahel täitsa tuumafüüsikaks muutuda, aga kel huvi, sel vastupidavust. Contesting the monolingual and Anglo-Americano-centric approach to these issues, the book elaborates such concepts as “the seismic shift” provoked by the decolonization of culture, the radicalization of the academic disciplines, the philosophical centrality of indigenous thought, the “left/right” convergence on identity politics, and “inter-colonial narcissism. Não só pelo escopo geral, uma preocupação de Stam com o terceiro mundo, mas realmente completo e conciso em resumir tudo dos grandes pensadores da teoria cinematográfica até o momento.I picked this book up at the campus library because I've recently become quite interested in silent cinema and this book has several brief sections on it, including a quick summary of the theories of folks like Jean Epstein and Sergei Eisenstein. Stam finnur fyrir þvílíkri þörf til þess að flexa sífellt í átt að lesandanum um hvað hann veit mikið um heimspeki. The other thing I found appealing about this book was the inclusion of some of the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, my favorite literary critic. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (co-authored with Ella Shohat) won the Katherine Singer Kovács "Best Film Book" Award in 1994.

Stam's graduate work ranged across Anglo-American literature, French and Francophone literature, and Luso-Brazilian literature. Sissejuhatus juba rohkem kui sajandivanuse filmiteooria ajalukku ei saa ilmselgelt üks lihtne lugemine olla.

This seemed to happen less frequently as time went on, which I think is probably more due to my lack of interest in certain theories (I have little use for Structuralism or its related theories in literature or film, for instance) than any problems inherent in Stam's work. With work that has ranged across a number of different fields, Stam has participated in a number of post-structuralist and postcolonial “turns” within film and cultural studies. His many books include Film Theory: An Introduction (Blackwell Publishers, 1999), Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture (1997), Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media with Ella Shohat (1994), which won the Katherine Singer Kovocs 'Best Film Book Award'; and Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film (1992).

The concern with issues of colonialism, postcolonialism, race, and cultural difference also found expression in a number of seminal texts co-authored with Ella Shohat. Having never read much film theory I was looking for a broad introduction and that's exactly what this was. Stam has also been a major figure within the “transtextual turn” in adaptation and intertextuality studies.A 1983 Screen essay “Colonialism, Racism, and Representation” brought post-structuralist theory to bear on issues of representations of colonial history and racial oppression. A remarkable synthesis, recommended to anyone who wants to understand the questions and debates that have animated film theory in the twentieth century. Two anthologies co-edited with Alessandra Raengo (both published by Blackwell) fleshed out the project: Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Adaptation (Blackwell, 2005), and Companion to Literature and Film (Blackwell, 2004). Hitchcock and Buñuel: Authority, Desire and the Absurd," in Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick, eds.