Film Theory: An Introduction (Images of Culture)

This book offers an accessible account of film theory for the student and the cinemagoer. It ranges from the late 1960s to the present, a period in which a number of conceptual strands—notably politics, semiotics and psychoanalysis—came together. Lapsely and Westlake chart the construction of this synthesis and its subsequent fragmentation and elucidate the various intellectual currents contributing to it. The first part of the book covers the conceptual background of film theory, dealing with historical materialism, semiotics, and psychoanalysis, while the second part concentrates on particular topics—authorship, narrative, realism, the avant-garde and postmodernism. This second edition features an extensive retrospective introduction, as well as a fully updated and extended bibliography. An account of film theory aimed at teh cinemagoer and the student. It ranges from the late 1960s to the present, a period in which a number of conceptual strands were woven together. The authors chart the construction of this synthesis and its subsequent fragmentation, and elucidate the various intellectual currents contributing to it. The authors trace the shift from Althusserian Marxism to Lacanian psychoanalysis as the dominant paradigms for discussing aesthetic questions.--From book jacket This text offers an account of film theory, aimed at the cinemagoer and the student. It ranges from the late 1960's to the present, a period when a number of conceptual strands - notably politics, semiotics and psychoanalysis - were woven together in an ambitious synthesis. Front cover Back cover Title Contents Foreword P1 Ch1: Politics P1 Ch2: Semiotics P1 Ch3: Psychoanalysis P2 Ch4: Authorship P2 Ch5: Narrative P2 Ch6: Realism P2 Ch7: The avant-garde Afterword Notes Select bibliography Index