Cinema, Memory, Modernity: The Representation of Memory from the Art Film to Transnational Cinema (Routledge Advances in Film Studies) - Softcover

Kilbourn, Russell J.A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415520304 ISBN 13: 9780415520300

Publisher: Routledge, 2012

Synopsis

Since its inception, cinema has evolved into not merely a ‘reflection’ but an indispensable index of human experience – especially our experience of time’s passage, of the present moment, and, most importantly perhaps, of the past, in both collective and individual terms. In this volume, Kilbourn provides a comparative theorization of the representation of memory in both mainstream Hollywood and international art cinema within an increasingly transnational context of production and reception. Focusing on European, North and South American, and Asian films, Kilbourn reads cinema as providing the viewer with not only the content and form of memory, but also with its own directions for use: the required codes and conventions for understanding and implementing this crucial prosthetic technology ― an art of memory for the twentieth-century and beyond.

 

About this title

Review:

'Cinema, Memory Modernity: The Representation of Memory from the Art Film to Transnational Cinema is a detailed, insightful and, at times, brilliantly perceptive view of this difficult and expansive subject. Kilbourn's choices are certainly representative of memory in post-World War II cinema.[...] Kilbourn's analysis of memory in the cinema, an ongoing theoretical debate often full of incompatibilities and abstractions, is lucidly argued in relation to the ideas of the theorists with whom he either agrees or disagrees. This book provides an engaging read for those who are interested in this aspect of cinema, but will also appeal to scholars of modernity and philosophy at the same time.'

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media

'Cinema, Memory, Modernity alternates between mourning the passing of the ‘modern’ moment of
art cinema and a feisty denunciation of a global post-modern malaise in which subjective meanings
have become disguised as collectively globalized through an ever-present visuality. While the
implications of this affective framework remain largely outside of the critical scope of the book,
the text’s lament and yearning take the shape of a plethora of original theoretical observations and
provocative analyses of specific films that make the book a very important addition to the study of
memory at the intersection of film and modernity.'

Adrián Pérez Melgosa, SUNY Stony Brook

About the Author:

Russell J.A. Kilbourn is Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0415520304
• ISBN 13: 9780415520300
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288