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Diacritics

Diacritics
-from JSTOR
NOTE: Recent issues of this title (for the years 2000-2003) contain links to articles available through other online resources.
Holdings: 1971-

Porton, Richard. "Classroom Insurrections and the 'Education of the Senses': ZC)ro de Conduite, L'Atalante, and If..." Film and the Anarchist Imagination. Danbury, CT: Verso, 1999. 195-211.

This article explicitly analyzes Vigo’s two feature films and If… in the context of anarchism. It is a very useful reference because it provides potentially all of the political analysis of the film in the context of older and contemporary anarchist theory. It discusses how Vigo’s film was ahead of its time in anarchist theory, specifically by likening school to a prison, which anticipated the works of Ivan Illich, Michel Foucault, and Paul Goodman, among others. It also provides historical context, such that the French boarding schools of the era were often built like prisons. The entire article essentially posits the film as an example of anarchist pedagogy.
This source is crucial to my hypothesis, mostly for the dichotomy it delineates more fully between schools and prisons, and the fact that it deals almost explicitly with the relationships between the film and theoretical anarchist pedagogy. Evidently, this portrayal of a children’s rebellion in school is what many anarchists would see as testing ground for a new social order, where the creative spontaneity of children is equivalent to collective social desire, which is repressed by authority figures. The article sees the possibility of liberation with creativity in school as a model for the anarchist notion of collective liberation throughout society, ultimately hailing children as those with the potential to create a new social order. An interesting viewpoint from the article is that it mentions the director’s care to avoid fetishizing childhood innocence as in the Victorian era by making the children into spontaneous troublemakers. These troublemakers thus reject the less-radical notion of “children’s rights” that was trumpeted by a few almost-anarchist theorists of the time because they reject the law itself, firmly cementing this film’s reflection of the most radically individualist anarchist ideas of the era. Finally, the article discusses the open-ended conclusion of the film as the most potentially radical act of all. It leaves open the question of whether the alternative, after the children’s rebellion, is some alternative educational structure with a new form of hierarchy populated by kids, or whether the children scampering off into the distance represent deschooling, and a praise for the wild, creative instincts of children. Either way, the film’s inconclusiveness allows the spectator and characters in the film to decide for themselves, a decidedly anarchist move.

JSTOR: Feminist StudiesVol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), pp. 151-169

This review of various feminist film theory discusses the contradictions and similarities between five of the most well known feminist film theorists Tania Modleski, Teresa de Lauretis, Mary Ann Doane, and Christine Gledhill. Theories include discussions of the women's film as genre and a feminist view of subjectivity. One question raised in the review is the contradiction between how women appear in film and how they appear and operate in reality. This dichotomy is partially explained by the absence of women, on screen and during the process, and the resulting loss of identification with women on screen. The images of women in film becomes oppressive. Hitchcock manages to close the gap between women in reality and women in film by portraying them less like objects and more like subjects.

The theory and practice of movie psychiatry -- Schneider 144 (8): 996 -- Am J Psychiatry

Schneider, Irving, M.D. "The Theory and Practice of Movie Psychiatry." The American Journal of Psychiatry 144.8 (1987): 996-1002. This article explores the depiction of psychiatry in the movie and how it has been a source of concern to many in the profession over the years. They feel that a false picture of the work of a psychiatrist has been illustrated to the public. In fact, psychiatry in the movies has developed its own characteristics, which only occasionally intersect with those of the real-life profession. In this paper, Schneider outlines theories of the invented profession of movie psychiatry.

"I'll explain to you about dreams so you don't think it is hooey. The secret of who you are and what has made you run away from yourself-these secrets are buried in your brain, but you don't want to look at them. The human being very often doesn't want to know the truth about himself because he thinks it will make him sick; so he makes himself sicker trying to forget. You follow me?... Here's where dreams come in. They tell you what you are trying to hide, but they tell it to you all mixed up like pieces of a puzzle that don't fit. The problem of the analyst is to examine this puzzle and put the pieces together in the right place and find out what the devil you are trying to say to yourself."

The above quote from the movie by Dr. Alex (addressed to Ballentine), shows how method of criminal detection and psychoanalytic method are related. The truth behind Edwardes murder is buried beneath an accumulation of alibis, false tracks, confusing recollections, and the analyst-detective patiently tries to get to the bottom of the case. Throughout the history of film, the psychoanalyst has been a solver of mysteries, often criminal mysteries, as the murder in Spellbound, but just as often personal ones.

Constructing a Feminist Cinematic Genealogy: The Gothic Woman's Film beyond Psychoanalysis.

Tay . "Constructing a Feminist Cinematic Genealogy: The Gothic Woman's Film beyond Psychoanalysis." Women [0957-4042] 14.3 (2003). 263-280.

This article argues that psychoanalysis is unable to properly theorize women's subjectivity and desire and posits instead that female subjectivity can be defined without the burden of sexual differences. Rather than look at feminist film theory through the narrow terms of psychoanalysis such as repression, subjectivity, and passive desires it should be looked in terms of genealogy. By looking at feminist film theory as stylistic changes over time and as themes in many films, feminist theory is not restricted to irrelevant psychoanalytic terminology.

While this article discusses films of the 1940's, many of its concepts can be applied to Blackmail. In essence, the film is an illustration of Alice's anxieties towards sex, love, and marriage. The moment she tries to deviate from the norm of seeing her steady, but dull, boyfriend, she becomes the victim of an attempted rape. By stabbing the portrait of the jester in the studio, she refuses the shame that Crewe and the jester as society want to force upon her. What on the surface seems a cautionary tale actually serves as a manifesto for Alice's right to be sexual and not feel any shame.

Antonin Artaud: Surrealist Theory and "The Seashell and the Clergyman"

Antonin Artaud: Surrealist Theory and "The Seashell and the Clergyman" Germaine Dulac's 1928 film "The Seashell and the Clergyman" was the only one of several of Antonin Artaud's scenarios for Surrealist films to be produced (and the only for which he would write a screenplay.) Despite Artaud's own misgivings about the film (perhaps due to Dulac's refusal to include him in the artistic direction), "The Seashell and the Clergyman" fulfilled much of Artaud's theories about Surrealist film and would influence many future Surrealist films in their techniques and goals. An examination of theories (including Artaud's) of Surrealist film, the film itself, arguments in favor of other films, and the influence of "The Seashell and the Clergyman" on future films reveals that Dulac's film should be considered the first Surrealist film.

10--Inland Empire. Dir. David Lynch. Perf. Laura Dern and Jeremy Irons. DVD. 2007.

David Lynch's Inland Empire follows an actress who slowly becomes so involved in her latest film that she assumes the identity of herself and her character. The movie borrows heavily form Surrealist film, confusing the progression and overlap of time and using irrational or unexplainable events interspersed with a vague story line. In fact, Ebert writes “There is a buried connection between the surrealists and the Sex Pistols, Bunuel and David Lynch, Dali and Damien Hirst”. To further illustrate the connection, Lynch often respond to inquiries about the plot of the film by quoting the Aitareya Upanishad: "We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. This is true for the entire universe," echoing the film theories of Antonin Artaud.
Inland Empire is valuable in an analysis of The Seashell and the Clergyman because both David Lynch and the film illuminate the influence of Dulac's film and Artaud's theory in Surrealist works to the present day. The techniques Lynch used to create several times and spaces that seem to be mutually exclusive, but interact in strange, irrational ways were first used in The Seashell and the Clergyman: the subconscious obsessions of the “main” character lead him/her into a bizarre dream world where a series of surprising and inexplicable events force the audience to attempt divining meaning from a film that, despite its almost comprehensible content, is essentially meaningless. The influence of The Seashell and the Clergyman is present in Lynch's film as well as several earlier examples already explored (e.g. Un chien andalou.) Dulac's film fulfills the theories of Artaud, at least in part, and its influence on Surrealist filmmaking clearly marks it as the first true Surrealist film.

Inland Empire. Dir. David Lynch. Perf. Laura Dern and Jeremy Irons. DVD. 2007.

8--Ebert, Roger. "Un chien andalou (1928)." Rev. of Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times 16 Apr. 2000.

Ebert's review of Un chien andalou provides both a good analysis of the film to use as a comparison to The Seashell and the Clergyman and a good example of the main arguments put forth in support of Un chien andalou as the first Surrealist film. According to Ebert, the idea for the film originated from a discussion between Dalí and Buñuel about dreams they had had, prompting them to make a film beginning with images from their dreams. “In collaborating on the scenario, their method was to toss shocking images or events at one another. Both had to agree before a shot was included in the film. 'No idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted,' Bunuel remembered. 'We had to open all doors to the irrational and keep only those images that surprised us, without trying to explain why'” (Ebert). Ebert also asserts the historical primacy of the film: “It was made in the hope of administering a revolutionary shock to society. 'For the first time in the history of the cinema,' wrote the critic Ado Kyrou, 'a director tries not to please but rather to alienate nearly all potential spectators.'”
Ebert's review provides much useful information for a comparison of Un chien andalou and The Seashell and the Clergyman and the theories behind them. To begin with, the technique used by Dalí and Buñuel in writing their film was quite different than those used by Dulac and those theorized by Artaud. Ebert argues that Dalí and Buñuel sought to create a film entirely devoid of meaning with no rational connection between any of events or images, essentially a film of pure nonsense. This varies considerably from Artaud's ideas of creating an experience that betrays a traditional narrative setting (requiring at least some connections between parts of the film) in order to include the spectator in the film. The goal of Dalí and Buñuel was to create a film that left the viewer with nothing and no ability to derive meaning from the experience; whereas, Artaud's goal was to force the audience to be a part of the dream world and create interpretations and conclusions on their own. Additionally, the technique of throwing illogical, surprising images at the audience used by Dalí and Buñuel was a primary technique in Dulac's film as well. Ebert and Kyrou advocate the uniqueness of Un chien andalou as film's first attempt to alienate an audience, but ignore the attempts of The Seashell and the Clergyman to alienate the audience from identification with the film and many other previous films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Impressionist films. While differences between Un chien andalou and The Seashell and the Clergyman may be noted from their difference in purpose, the theory and techniques used in both originated with Dulac's film.

Ebert, Roger. "Un chien andalou (1928)." Rev. of Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times 16 Apr. 2000.

5--Hedges, Inez. "Review: [untitled]." The French Review 59 (1986): 824-25.

Inez Hedges's review of Linda Williams's book Figures of Desire: A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film argues that Williams's analysis of only films “that were a historical part of the surrealist movement and were developed in direct contact with surrealist theory” (824) works well as a method of analyzing Surrealist cinema. Williams uses Un chien andalou as a case study for analyzing the relationship between images and desire in Surrealist works and delves into the methods used by Buñuel to “[place] the viewer's experience in the uneasy zone between the imaginary and the symbolic, and [force] a confrontation with the very psychic energy that enables [him or] her to enjoy films," a method she views as common in Surrealist films' attempts to “[break] up the spectator's process of identification with the characters” (825). She goes further in this analysis concluding that the film “sets up a conventional narrative space and then violates it, leaving the spectator especially vulnerable to the surrealist message" (Hedges 825) and then extends this analysis to other films such as Le Fantôme de la liberté, Cet obscur objet du désir, and L'Age d'or.
Hedges's article provides a means of clarifying Linda Williams's theory of Surrealist film goals and practices combined with Flitterman-Lewis's writings on Artaud's intentions enable a better analysis of The Seashell and the Clergyman and its place in Surrealist film history. Flitterman-Lewis argues that Artaud's main objection to Dulac's film was the lack of an experience forced upon the viewer. This experience, in the view of Williams, results from the lack of character identification; without being able to identify with a character in the film and thus experience the thoughts, actions, feelings, and ideas (or as Williams would characterize them, desires) of that character, the viewer is forced into his or her own experience, one which requires the viewer to interpret, experience, and judge events and actions in the film rather than relying on characters to do so. Flitterman-Lewis outlines common techniques used to establish this situation (superimposition, split shots, lighting, etc.) and provides an analysis of how The Seashell and the Clergyman also establishes such a situation. Therefore, by examining Williams's theory and Flitterman-Lewis's evaluations of Artaud and the film, it is possible to construct a framework for evaluating what constitutes a Surrealist film and whether or not The Seashell and the Clergyman fits into that framework (an argument which Flitterman-Lewis makes well when it is placed into Williams's theoretical framework.)

Hedges, Inez. "Review: [untitled]." The French Review 59 (1986): 824-25.

3--Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy. Dada and Surrealist Film. Ed. Rudolf E. Kuenzli. New York: MIT P, 1996. 110-24.

Flitterman-Lewis's article analyzes the underlying theory of Surrealism as it is manifested in film. She focuses on The Seashell and the Clergyman directed by Germaine Dulac in 1928 and based on a scenario written by Antonin Artaud (which was based on the dream of a friend, Yvonne Allendy.) "To be sure, Artaud's selection of Dulac as the person capable of transforming his written text into cinematic images was not arbitrary: both the poet and the filmmaker had long been preoccupied with questions of a visual language...For Dulac, whose Symbolist antecedents led her to regard the cinematic image as the site of a fusion, the film was conceived as a condensation of associations whose gradual accretion of meaning allowed the story to proceed, image by image, in a chain of metaphors. In direct contrast to this fluid sliding of images, Artaud's conception was based on the Surrealist principles of displacement and dissociative juxtaposition, emphasizing instead the films liberating assault on the continuity system of traditional narrative" (Flitterman-Lewis 110-1). Artaud's conception of the Surrealist capabilities of film emphasized immersing the viewer into an experience, as in a dream, that not only affected the viewer on a subconscious level, but also required his or her participation in that experience. Artaud was dissatisfied with the film, allegedly shouting expletives directed at the film and Dulac herself (who had not allowed Artaud to participate in the artistic direction of the film or offer clarifications of the intentions of his scenario) and participating in the subsequent rioting which forced the showing to end. Flitterman-Lewis argues that Artaud's frustration was fueled by Dulac's inability to convey more than the material, visual qualities of a dream without creating the experience of a dream. Although Artaud was disappointed with the final film, he still acknowledged it's status as the first Surrealist film, writing to his editor, “[C]riticism, if there still is such a thing, must recognize the hereditary derivation of all these films [Surrealist films, specifically Buñuel's L'Age d'or and Cocteau's Blood of a Poet], and say that they ALL come from The Seashell and the Clergyman...Seashell was certainly the first film of the genre [Surrealist film], and its precursor" (Flitterman-Lewis 112).

Artaud's theory of how Surrealism should be established in film offer's a good framework for evaluating whether The Seashell and the Clergyman should be considered the first Surrealist film. Despite his own misgivings about the film, he considers it to be the first (if Flitterman-Lewis did not take much liberty of judgment in her use of brackets), a good starting point for evaluation. He advocates the use of juxtaposed, seemingly unconnected images meant to surprise the audience and force them to consider the logical connection (or lack thereof) between those images. Techniques such as superimposition, split shots, lighting, and editing should be used to break down the constructed materiality of the world into the materiality of the dream world wherein objects flowed into each other and actors. Indeed these techniques are utilized not only in Dulac's film, but in subsequent Surrealist films such as Un chien andalou, L'Age d'or, and Blood of a Poet as well as modern Surrealist films.

Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy. Dada and Surrealist Film. Ed. Rudolf E. Kuenzli. New York: MIT P, 1996. 110-24.

9--Maiellaro, Matt. "12 oz. Mouse." Atlanta. 19 June 2005.

“12 oz. Mouse” is a modern TV series (although it is not a film, the show is strongly Surrealist and congruent with the techniques and goals of many Surrealist films; additionally, Foster writes that "The surrealists, many of whom were avid film spectators, despised impressionism, but they admired lowbrow American serials and slapstick comedies") about a crudely animated green mouse called by many names including Mouse, Fitz, and Butch and his companion Skillet who do odd jobs for a shark (named Shark) in order to be able to buy more beer. As the show progresses, other bizarre characters (such as a wealthy businessman named Square, a hitman specializing in archery named Pronto, a peanut-shaped police officer more concerned with his drug habit than maintaing law and order, a character capable of morphing between a male and female representation, and several clocks that perpetually display 2:22) are introduced and what first appears to be a meaningless cartoon world is revealed to be a dream world imposed on people represented by these characters through the use of Asprind (what one is led to believe is a mind-erasing drug) and Time Gas (a drug released by the 2:22 clock in order to freeze time at a single instant in the dream world). Much of the plot is left unresolved as the show was cancelled after 20 episodes and although another episode (released solely on the internet) was made after the cancellation, the writers opted to start a new chapter of the story rather than writing a conclusion to the show.
“12 oz. Mouse” uses many methods common to Surrealist film in order to establish an ever-changing dream world through hierarchies of knowledge: upon the first viewing, it is slowly revealed that the world of Fitz is in fact a dream world imposed on him by other characters (represented by Shark and Square); on the second viewing, the viewer is able to pick up on what seemed to be simple passing comments and disconnected statements at first, but are actually clues which reveal that this dream world is actually based on the real world that the characters live in; a third viewing reveals even more of the intensely complex plot, as the viewer is now more aware of the nature of this world and able to notice clues that previously one would not have connected to this world on a higher level. The show very effectively utilizes many of the techniques used by Surrealist film makers: establishing a normative narrative forum which is then interrupted by the characters, thus breaking character identification. The show forces the viewer to not only interpret what happens in the show, but to rethink these interpretations upon subsequent viewings when the viewer is equipped with more knowledge of the situation. Furthermore, because much of the plot is unresolved, the viewer is also forced to fill in certain holes and postulate explanations for unexplained elements. The same techniques that were first used for this purpose in The Seashell and the Clergyman are utilized in “12 oz. Mouse” to create not just a simple dream world, but an experience which requires participation, consideration, and evaluation from the viewers in a manner that one hopes would garner at least the interest of Antonin Artaud.

Maiellaro, Matt. "12 oz. Mouse." Atlanta. 19 June 2005.

4--Williams, Linda. "From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema." Film Quarterly 34 (1981): 41-42.

Linda William's article reviews Steven Kovàcs's book From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema and offers a method of examining the history of Surrealist cinema, namely “a return to the history of Surrealism proper: how the Surrealist poets and artists in the main phase of the movement (1923-1930) turned their talent and energy to film; how their painting, photography, and poetry found new forms of expression in this emerging art; the development of this new aesthetics of film from the 'enchantment' of the early twenties to the 'rage' typified by the 1930 L'Age d'or" (Williams 41). William's chastises Kovàcs's lack of significant analysis of the role of dreams in Surrealist film, an element she views as extremely important to understanding the goals of the movement. To illustrate this point, she takes the example of Kovàcs's examination of Dalí and Buñuel: "the issue points out a problem in the book's general approach: an assessment of Surrealist cinema is not a question of sorting out individual personalities and their contributions. If Surrealism deserves its 'ism' then there is something more to Buñuel and Dalí's collaboration than the fortuitous encounter of two individual psychic obsessions. To my mind that something is to be found in the formal procedures of the unconscious which Buñuel and Dalí so brilliantly adapted to the creation of their films" (Williams 42).
Williams's review offers two important tools for the examination of The Seashell and the Clergyman: first, she argues that an examination of the history of Surrealist film should focus on how Surrealist artists turned their ideas into film and how film enabled a method of expression unavailable in other art forms; and second, she highlights the importance of dreams, their structure, and their natural functioning and the role they played in the making of Surrealist films. The first tool lends more analysis to Flitterman-Lewis's examination of Artaud's paradoxical claim that The Seashell and the Clergyman was the first surrealist film despite his insistence that Dulac failed to recreate more than the material appearance of construction of dreams, without expressing an experience of dreaming. William's method of analysis would factor in the exclusion of Artaud from the artistic direction of the film, separating Artaud from the ability to express through film and leaving it entirely up to Dulac. To resolve this seeming paradox, the only logical conclusion must be that Artaud found the film to be an adequate Surrealist expression of the dream, though it was not an interpretation true to his understanding and visualization of the scenario. Williams places the “main phase” of the movement within the period 1923-30, ending just after The Seashell and the Clergyman and Un chien andalou were made, thus reinforcing Flitterman-Lewis's agument that Dulac and Artaud's film was the first Surrealist film due to the amount in terms of technique and means of expression that later movies would borrow from it.

Williams, Linda. "From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema." Film Quarterly 34 (1981): 41-42.

1--Jamieson, Lee. "The Lost Prophet of Cinema: The Film Theory of Antonin Artaud." Senses of Cinema Inc. 27 Nov. 2008 .

“Artaud’s film theory extends directly from his philosophical views. He believed that, in establishing and expanding civilisation, humankind has fabricated a spiritless, material world in which to exist. Consequently, we have repressed our primitive instincts and lost contact with our spiritual senses. With the development of film as a serious art form in 1920s France, Artaud saw an opportunity to hijack the medium, to use it as a tool with which to pierce the ‘skin’ of civilised reality. Thus, Artaud gave his cinema a purpose, outflanking the prized entertainment values of the 1920s film industry” (Jamieson). Jamieson's article begins with a lengthy analysis of the interaction between Artaud's personal philosophy and his theory of film, exploring both his rejection of cinema's focuses on visual presentation and entertainment as devoid of emotion and purpose and his desire to give film a new purpose as a means of reconnecting with our primitive selves and instincts. He viewed the world as a material construction of humans and art as a means of deconstructing this world and giving to it a portion of the artist's essence. He believed that visual representations often failed because they did not retain the energy of the originating thought, but sought a method of avoiding this short-fall through film.
In his section on The Seashell and the Clergyman, Jamieson provides a clear contextualization of its place in the surrealist film world and establishes it as the basis for later surrealist films: “Artaud’s scenario for The Seashell and the Clergyman set the groundwork for subsequent surrealist film initiatives and was the first to develop many of the æsthetic principles typical of the movement. Reportedly, Buñuel had seen Artaud and Dulac’s film whilst preparing for Un chien andalou and, interestingly, both films share similar cinematic devices. Both films employ disruptive temporal structures that unfold with the fabric of a dream and incorporate visual shocks designed to impact viscerally upon the viewer”. This provides two important points for an evaluation of The Seashell and the Clergyman's place in film history: first, it establishes a derivative quality to Un chien andalou, argued by many to be the actual first Surrealist film; second, it sets up the unique ability and methods of film that enable Surrealist film makers to create dream worlds and viscerally impact its viewers. If the debate over which is the first Surrealist film can be reduced to a comparison of The Seashell and the Clergman and Un chien andalou, Jamieson provides a good body of evidence in support of Dulac's film.

Jamieson, Lee. "The Lost Prophet of Cinema: The Film Theory of Antonin Artaud." Senses of Cinema Inc. 27 Nov. 2008 .

Max Wertheimer & Gestalt theory / D. Brett King, Michael Wertheimer.

King, D. Brett. . Max Wertheimer & Gestalt theory / D. Brett King, Michael Wertheimer. 0765802589 series New Brunswick : Transaction Publishers, c2005.
Call#: Van Pelt Library BF109.W47 K56 2005

gestalt theory and musicoogy

Body and the screen : theories of Internet spectatorship / Michele White.

White, Michele. . Body and the screen : theories of Internet spectatorship / Michele White. [0262232499 (alk. paper) ] Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2006.
Call#: Van Pelt Library TK5105.875.I57 W5275 2006

The Body and the Screen looks at theoretical models of Internet and computer spectatorship as a way of illustrating how these new technologies might not be as controllable as many think they are. Michele White views spectatorship as relatively similar between old and new media in certain ways. Just like in television and cinema, the images that appear before us on computer and phone screens hold a certain amount of cultural and social bias that cannot be removed. Consider the appearance of the “Ask Jeeves” butler – a Caucasian butler, and an image that has transferred exactly from old media to new. This idea is significant because it represents a departure from “traditional” ways of considering spectatorship in this age of digital screen interaction. I think her point-of-view provides a unique angle that I could perhaps use for my paper, especially since she outright disagrees with Anne Friedberg’s concept of an Internet/computer “user.”

The inclusion of several different types of theories and theorists in this book also appeals to me. I like that White chooses to back up her arguments with several different, at times competing, ideas from intellectuals of varying backgrounds. I’m not as interested in why she chooses whom she does; rather, her writing style here allows me to learn new bits of information quickly from authors I might not have known otherwise. In fact, overall, I learned a lot of little bits of information from other theorists in addition to studying her concept on new media spectatorship. The entire book is thus useful in this way.

Yet White’s examples and illustrative points may not be as helpful as her opinions and theories. She focuses a lot on the social implications of Internet content (how individuals consciously and subconsciously react to the white finger pointer or the black arrow pointer, for example), rather than examining the interaction between spectator and screen. Some discussion does exist on interfaces, especially in chapter 2’s discussion of “the gaze,” but ultimately return to reinforcing the social control that she believes pervades even this new media. My investigation really has nothing to do with examining gender, race, and sexuality issues in new media presentations, so much of this is not relevant for my paper.

Digital dialectic : new essays on new media / edited by Peter Lunenfeld.

Digital dialectic : new essays on new media / edited by Peter Lunenfeld. [0262122138 (hardcover : alk. paper) ] Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, c1999.
Call#: Van Pelt Library QA76.9.C66 D54 1999

The Digital Dialectic, edited by Peter Lunenfeld, features a number of essays focused on resolving apparent contradictions that arise in new media theories. The main approach taken by most of the authors here is to utilize conceptual ways of viewing new media in tandem with a practical outlook on the potentiality of this novel group of technologies. As Lunenfeld explains, these essays look to see where new media can go rather than simply where it is. His introduction does a good, albeit brief, job of outlining what he means by dialectic and how this could apply to new media; he also fleshes out a definition of “digital” and compares this to analog, thereby inviting comparisons that could provide useful for my investigation. However, Lunenfeld and the other authors fail to really explain the useful significance of examining this dialectic. Other than urging us to not take an “all or nothing” approach to this new media, no real definitive conclusions come from these reports. Perhaps this is the point, since new media studies have only existed for a relatively short period of time. Or perhaps I’ve been somewhat desensitized to this way of thinking since I’ve grown up existing in and accepting this type of new media compromise. Either way, a little more push towards a greater practical application for these theories would have helped.

Aside from the introduction and general tidbits taken from the book, I think Lev Manovich’s essay, “What is Digital Cinema?” provides the greatest information and opinions for my paper topic. This essay examines how tracing the filmic image change from “traditional” film to digital technology allows for a formation of the logic of the digital moving image. This fits in well with my paper because I want to compare older screen technologies (film and TV) with newer image methods of production; Manovich’s thesis thus provides me with at least one argument through which I can examine my own views on differences in old and new filmic screen images. Manovich also provides some background information on what he considers “digital media” to be, including its evolution from multimedia and thus its distance from traditional cinematic realism. But, his main example, that of the CD-ROM, is slightly outdated and not as useful to my direct purposes – therefore, I plan on using newer examples from more recent sources in my paper.

Neandertal archaeology: Implications for our origins

CLARK,GA . "Neandertal archaeology: Implications for our origins" American anthropologist [0002-7294] 104.1 (2002). 50-.

Story, performance, and event : contextual studies of oral narrative / Richard Bauman.

Bauman, Richard. . Story, performance, and event : contextual studies of oral narrative / Richard Bauman. [0521322235 ] Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Call#: Van Pelt Library GR72 .B38 1986

Political philosophy comes to Rick's : Casablanca and American civic culture / edited by James F. Pontuso.

Political philosophy comes to Rick's : Casablanca and American civic culture / edited by James F. Pontuso. [0739108328 (hardcover : alk. paper) ] Lanham : Lexington Books, c2005.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1997.C352 P65 2005

Essay Number Ten: On the Argument of Casablanca and the Meaning of the Third Rick by Kenneth De Luca

The appeal of Casablanca is unmistakable. Popular amongst men and women of all ages, Casablanca is frequently listed as the second greatest film of all time. What makes this film so universally popular that it can still garners passionate fans amongst generations that can not even remember World War II, the studio system, or even Bogart and Bergman? It is this question that Political Philosophy Comes To Rick’s: Casablanca and American Civic Culture tries to answer with a series of relevant scholarly essays. The tenth essay (written by Kenneth De Luca) is of particular interest to the analysis of the legendary film. This essay reflects on the relationship between Rick’s character and the ideals of America. According to this essay, Rick’s character maintains modern American appeal because he represents the personification of Jeffersonian individualism. Rick is a man who needs to be free to the point where he can actually be moral and even beautiful. By making the ultimate sacrifice of love, Rick achieves personal autonomy and also freedom from the overwhelming guilt of having done the morally wrong thing. De Luca states that Americans find this sacrifice seductive because it represents a combination of seemingly irreconcilable freedoms – freedom to satisfy self interest and freedom to be directed by some higher purpose. This essay is important to the study of Casablanca because it shows the noncommercial / non-studio system aspects of Casablanca overwhelming popularity.

Different language : Gertrude Stein's experimental writing / Marianne DeKoven.

DeKoven, Marianne, 1948-. Different language : Gertrude Stein's experimental writing / Marianne DeKoven. [0299092100 :] Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PS3537.T323 Z586 1983

A highly innovative restructuring and reading of Stein's work.

Feminist locations : global and local, theory and practice / edited by Marianne DeKoven.

Feminist locations : global and local, theory and practice / edited by Marianne DeKoven. [0813529220 (alk. paper)] New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2001.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HQ1190 .F4534 2001

An important feminist compilation.

Cyberfeminism : next protocols / Claudia Reiche, Verena Kuni, eds.

This journal (2004) is a very cool read for feminist scholars and anyone interested in body politic. Although I am not sure that any of the essays will apply to my work, I was quite interested in Schleiner's essay "Female-Bobs Arrive at Dusk", which talks about the phenomenon of fan-created female heroine patches for video games in the late 1990's (part of our discussion with Nick Monfort). I was hoping to be able to use the essay by Aristarkhova "Femininity, Community, Hospitality: Towards a Cyberethics" in order to discuss issues of hospitality and community for women online, but she spends the entire time theorizing on the ideas of Derrida and community without talking about language and speech.

Discipline and punish : the birth of the prison / Michel Foucault ; translated from the French by Alan Sheridan.

Michel Foucault’s analysis of the evolution of the western penal system resonates with the 1932 national Burns-inspired urge to abolish the chain gang. Foucault recounts the replacement of the chain gang in France in 1837 “by inconspicuous black-painted cell-carts.” Thus, “punishment gradually ceased to be a spectacle” (Foucault 8-9). However, the lack of visibility of brutality does not displace the sinister effects of a now ambiguously-motivated penal system. Foucault argues that discipline’s growing absence of tangible sources renders the system all the more insidious. For, “punishment, then, will tend to become the most hidden part of the penal process… [and] as a result, justice no longer takes public responsibility for the violence that is bound up with its practice” (9). The chain gang in Georgia was indeed subsequently supplanted by a less visible means of penal correction.

Foucault’s concern regarding the penal system’s move toward discretion reflects national fears of Southern racial integration that the chain gangs both facilitated and made visible to the public. The chain gangs evolved out of an antebellum convict labor system designed to prolong the racial, economic, and cultural dynamics established through slavery. Thus, Warner Brothers responded to national anxieties provoked by whites’ conspicuous subjection to a mode of punishment perceived to be designed for blacks.

However, the film for the most part ignores arguments that address these racial tensions. Might Hollywood have relished portraying the chain gang as a hyper-visible site of injustice in order to facilitate its manipulation of pre-existing national fears surrounding chain gangs? In other words, the chain gangs – which arguably embodied a tense conflict between Southern modernity and lingering effects of its post-slavery economy – rendered racial tension and physical violence spectacles, thereby generating national anxiety which posed threats to established cultural and economic hierarchies (Hollywood, at the top of these hierarchies).

I do not suggest that a national return to a chain gang penal system would be appropriate. Rather, in 1932, the existence of the chain gang was not purely regressive, but complex and deeply imbricated in modernity. Thus, the film’s structural misreading of the chain gang – a system which in many ways literalizes the studios' symbolic perpetuation of violence and inequality – can be read as motivated by Hollywood’s fears regarding the chain gang’s cultural and economic self-exposure.

Dialectic of enlightenment [by] Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. Translated by John Cumming.

Horkheimer and Adorno argue that civilization represses barbarity by attempting to embody its negation. However, savage brutality does not disappear. They explain this as a process of “progress…reverting to regression. That [industries] are obtusely liquidating metaphysics does not matter in itself, but that these are themselves becoming metaphysics, an ideological curtain, within the social whole, behind which real doom is gathering, does matter. That is the basic premise of our fragments” (Horkheimer and Adorno xviii). This attempt to elucidate the dynamics of contradictory forces in modern industrial societies, – that is, culture represses ritual which resurfaces in barbarity – seems particularly relevant to LeRoy’s dichotomized expression of modern industry and penal savagery in Chain Gang.

Thus, the film can be read as at once enacting and promoting alternative readings of modernity’s relationship to tradition. Lichtenstein’s depiction of chain gangs as trapped between old and new systems (although, he argues, closer to the latter, while occupying a space in the public imagination – thanks largely to Burns’s and LeRoy’s efforts – which links them primarily with the former) reflects Horkheimer and Adorno’s modernity paradigm. Might, then, the film’s repression of cultural-historical complexity signify its participation in generating the very conditions which facilitated and prolonged the existence of unjust systems like the chain gang?

Horkheimer and Adorno’s analysis of “the culture industry” also confirms arguments that any text produced by Hollywood participates in stifling potential political resistance to capitalism. They assert that “under the dictate of effectiveness, technique is becoming psychotechnique, a procedure for manipulating human beings … everything is directed at overpowering a customer conceived as distracted or resistant” (133). In effect, Chain Gang’s purportedly subversive message can be interpreted as co-opting mounting politically-resistant energies in 1932 American culture.

I will also attempt to analyze Horkheimer and Adorno’s scathing criticisms of Hollywood and American capitalism dialogically with arguments promoted by the very systems the Dialectic of Enlightenment decries. If anything, Chain Gang’s example has instructed me to appreciate the nuanced difficulties posed by classifying any one economy, culture, or form of government as either purely repressive or uniquely revolutionary.

Visual culture : an introduction / John A. Walker & Sarah Chaplin.

Walker and Chaplin walk through the theory and history of Visual Studies. They begin with an exploration of the notion of culture, particularly as a foil to nature. The notion of culture, they argue, is inextricably linked to what the economy allows and, perhaps more importantly, deems necessary, allowing the members of a society to establish a hierarchical pattern. Now, however, "culture" is increasingly used to describe any aspect of daily life. Next, the concept of the "visual" is explored, both in how it is sensorally experienced, and what the repercussions of this perception are.

Chapter four's discussion of theory and its various manifestations is particularly interesting, as it explores not only self-conscious theory (e.g., philosophers and people who fancy themselves theorists) but also theory-as-byproduct; that is, theory that developed more organically. "In sum, there are not only theories of art, but also theories for art; theory-informed art, and even theories as art" (62). This is an especially helpful screen for considering why book covers are designed as they are.

The chapter entitled "Production, Distribution and Consumption" has a helpful explanation and description of consumer models, and examines the theories behind the design and distribution of products. In the following chapter, they examine the roles of institutions in creating various products designed to perpetuate their ideals. They explain: "in the case of large, complexly structured arts and media institutions employing or commissioning teams of specialists to produce films, televesion programmes, etc., the influence of the institutions on the content, form and ideological agenda of the final product is likely to be harder to judge because of the many functionarires and levels of mediation involved" (94).

The notion of looking and voyeurism is also explored. This is a critical concept when considering the "why" of book covers; people's selections of books mirrors their interests, and the visual to which they are drawn is an immediate indicator. Therefore, one can extrapolate from the text, that selecting a book by its cover is a sort of narcisistic voyeurism.

Feminist film theory : a reader / edited by Sue Thornham.

"The most important thing to say about Thornham's book is that it is one of the best edited collections of essays this reviewer has seen. Moving in roughly chronological order, Thornham includes selections from all the branches of feminist film criticism and by most of the important scholars in the field. The editor has chosen carefully, and the reader will take pleasure in revisiting the works of Jonhston, Mulvey, Doane, de Lauretis, Kuhn, Gledhill, Staiger, Modleski, hooks, and Butler, among others. Thornham introduces each section with an admirable summary of the historical context of each new movement. This collection will be widely circulated and used in countless classrooms over the coming years, as well it should be. All levels." (Choice, March 2000)

And the mirror cracked : feminist cinema and film theory / Anneke Smelik.

""In imaging female subjectivity and addressing the spectator as female, feminist filmmakers have created films which transform and innovate cinematic codes and conventions." Smelik switches the focus of feminist discourse from spectator to filmmaker. Unwilling to revive the auteur theory, which she considers to be elitist and phallocentric, she nevertheless investigates the works of such filmmakers as Sander, Campion, Treut, and Adlon and discovers ways in which they subvert traditional cinematic subjectivity, affect, and modes of representation. Smelik's arguments are, of course, deeply rooted in the feminist theory of Lacan, Mulvey, Silverman, Kaplan, Irigaray, et al., but she also includes such figures as Eisenstein and Barthes. She does not privilege any particular theory but uses whatever works for the particular filmmaker she is dealing with. Her choice of films is as refreshing as her method: one is too used to reading about the same feminist films in book after book. Smelik's knowledge of the field is encyclopedic, and her analyses are consistently persuasive. This welcome addition to the ongoing feminist discourse is recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (Choice, February 1999)