Film, Politics, and Gramsci - Softcover

Landy, Marcia

9780816623914: Film, Politics, and Gramsci

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816623910 ISBN 13: 9780816623914

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1994

Film, Politics, and Gramsci was first published in 1994.Marcia Landy reassesses Antonio Gramsci's politics in light of contemporary Marxist critiques of mass culture. Unlike other studies of Gramsci that focus either on his political or on his cultural writings, Landy looks at the relationship between politics, culture, and history in his work. Focusing especially on Gramsci's notions of common sense and folklore, and illustrating these through readings of various films, this book encompasses issues such as:* the contemporary status of history* notions of education* the nature of intellectuals* the role of cultural production and media analysis Landy consolidates questions of politics and culture through a close reading of Gramsci's writings as well as of recent Gramscian scholarship. In particular, she shows how Antonio Negri's writings accommodate, and even extend, the cultural concerns Gramsci raised. Her examination of cinema-from British and Italian films to Hollywood science fiction-demonstrates how an elaboration of Gramsci's cultural and political analysis can serve as a corrective to the excesses of monolithic views of culture, whether dystopian or celebratory. Specifically, Landy shows how folklore, however "natural" and ahistorical it may seem, is constituted through changing representations of the state, civil society, subjectivity, knowledge, and power.

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Synopsis:

Marcia Landy reassesses Antonio Gramsci's politics in the light of contemporary Marxist critiques of mass culture. Unlike other studies of Gramsci that focus on either his political or cultural writings, Landy examines the relationship between politics, culture, and history in his work. Looking especially at Gramsci's notions of common sense and folklore, and illustrating these through readings of various films, this book encompasses issues such as: the contemporary status of history, notions of education, the nature of intellectuals, the role of cultural production and media analysis. Landy consolidates questions of politics and culture through a close examination of Gramsci's writings, as well as recent Gramscian scholarship. In particular, she shows how Antonio Negri's writings accommodate, even extend, cultural concerns raised by Gramsci. Her analysis of cinema - from British and Italian films to Hollywood science fiction - demonstrates how Gramscian notions of common sense and folklore act as correctives to the excesses of monolithic readings of culture, whether dystopian or celebratory.

Specifically, she shows how folklore, however "natural" and ahistorical it may seem, is a human construction intimately related to historical conditions.

About the Author:

Marcia Landy is professor of English and film studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of several books, including Fascism in Film: The Italian Commercial Cinema 1930-1943 (1986), Imitations of Life: A Reader on Film and Television Melodrama (1991), and British Genres: British Cinema and Society (1991).

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