Thomas S. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231169424
- eISBN:
- 9780231537889
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169424.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter argues that documentary aesthetics turn to everyday life in order to create works that promoted the norms and values of the British liberal state during its period of greatest distress.
This chapter argues that documentary aesthetics turn to everyday life in order to create works that promoted the norms and values of the British liberal state during its period of greatest distress.
Wakae Nakane
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474419444
- eISBN:
- 9781474444682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419444.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The majority of Naomi Kawase’s documentary films are based on her own life experiences, leading to conclusions that they are entirely self-reflexive. The author argues that ‘they instead show an ...
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The majority of Naomi Kawase’s documentary films are based on her own life experiences, leading to conclusions that they are entirely self-reflexive. The author argues that ‘they instead show an alternative way of constructing relationships among people’. She also claims that indicate a possibility to ‘go beyond the binarism between ‘individual’ and ‘society’’ by creating an ‘intimate sphere’ which transcends the general idea of societal discourse.Less
The majority of Naomi Kawase’s documentary films are based on her own life experiences, leading to conclusions that they are entirely self-reflexive. The author argues that ‘they instead show an alternative way of constructing relationships among people’. She also claims that indicate a possibility to ‘go beyond the binarism between ‘individual’ and ‘society’’ by creating an ‘intimate sphere’ which transcends the general idea of societal discourse.
Lidia Merás
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474419475
- eISBN:
- 9781474444699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419475.003.0013
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Using Profession: Documentarist and its diary-style format as a case study, this essay revolves around the practices, aesthetics and narrative interests of contemporary female documentarists in Iran. ...
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Using Profession: Documentarist and its diary-style format as a case study, this essay revolves around the practices, aesthetics and narrative interests of contemporary female documentarists in Iran. Exploring the professional barriers involved in documentary film making in the country today, the author discusses female authorship also in relation to the hard censorship laws, the menace of political retaliations as well as gender discrimination. The extent to which these women documentarists are forced to perform their work as a form of underground activism have widespread repercussions on their practice, and merges the personal with the political.Less
Using Profession: Documentarist and its diary-style format as a case study, this essay revolves around the practices, aesthetics and narrative interests of contemporary female documentarists in Iran. Exploring the professional barriers involved in documentary film making in the country today, the author discusses female authorship also in relation to the hard censorship laws, the menace of political retaliations as well as gender discrimination. The extent to which these women documentarists are forced to perform their work as a form of underground activism have widespread repercussions on their practice, and merges the personal with the political.
David L. Paletz
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780195384512
- eISBN:
- 9780199350452
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384512.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, General
Romantic love, the heart of many fiction films, is rare in documentary films. This essay begins by explaining its absence and shows that, when it appears, romantic love is usually depicted ...
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Romantic love, the heart of many fiction films, is rare in documentary films. This essay begins by explaining its absence and shows that, when it appears, romantic love is usually depicted unfavorably: pleasure turns into pain, possession into loss or a marriage of misery and make do. Then the focus turns to “Sherman’s March,” the documentary that best reveals romantic love in all its aspects, as we (the viewers) accompany Ross McElwee or, rather, his persona, in a quest for romantic love from one after another engaging and distinctive Southern woman. The analysis shows the film’s remarkable construction, sound track and voiceovers, its images and camera movements; and finds that, as it celebrates the women’s uniqueness, originality and style, the film is a droll tale of a search marked more by frustration and failure than success.Less
Romantic love, the heart of many fiction films, is rare in documentary films. This essay begins by explaining its absence and shows that, when it appears, romantic love is usually depicted unfavorably: pleasure turns into pain, possession into loss or a marriage of misery and make do. Then the focus turns to “Sherman’s March,” the documentary that best reveals romantic love in all its aspects, as we (the viewers) accompany Ross McElwee or, rather, his persona, in a quest for romantic love from one after another engaging and distinctive Southern woman. The analysis shows the film’s remarkable construction, sound track and voiceovers, its images and camera movements; and finds that, as it celebrates the women’s uniqueness, originality and style, the film is a droll tale of a search marked more by frustration and failure than success.
Dong Hoon Kim
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474421805
- eISBN:
- 9781474434782
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474421805.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines early film culture prior to the 1920s in order to offer a detailed historical background for the book’s exploration of the major advancement of Joseon cinema since the late ...
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This chapter examines early film culture prior to the 1920s in order to offer a detailed historical background for the book’s exploration of the major advancement of Joseon cinema since the late 1910s. The first half of the chapter critically scrutinizes socio-political and cultural conditions that influenced the formation of early film culture in pre-colonial and colonial Korea. Equal attention is given to the collective efforts of early film entrepreneurs and exhibitors in creating film exhibition sites, including movie theatres, defining social and cultural functions of theatre space for a society devoid of theatrical tradition, and cultivating film audiences. The second half traces the activities of the first film production entity of colonial Korea: the Moving Picture Unit (MPU) of the colonial government. The author’s attempt to uncover the forgotten history of the MUP ultimately reveals the problematic of Japanese and Korean film historiographies that have pushed this crucial film unit of the empire onto the margin of film history.Less
This chapter examines early film culture prior to the 1920s in order to offer a detailed historical background for the book’s exploration of the major advancement of Joseon cinema since the late 1910s. The first half of the chapter critically scrutinizes socio-political and cultural conditions that influenced the formation of early film culture in pre-colonial and colonial Korea. Equal attention is given to the collective efforts of early film entrepreneurs and exhibitors in creating film exhibition sites, including movie theatres, defining social and cultural functions of theatre space for a society devoid of theatrical tradition, and cultivating film audiences. The second half traces the activities of the first film production entity of colonial Korea: the Moving Picture Unit (MPU) of the colonial government. The author’s attempt to uncover the forgotten history of the MUP ultimately reveals the problematic of Japanese and Korean film historiographies that have pushed this crucial film unit of the empire onto the margin of film history.
Carla Maia
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474419475
- eISBN:
- 9781474444699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419475.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Focusing on the relational dimension of some selected works, this essay proposes to consider the subject matter as films with women rather than films of women. The main effort is to understand ...
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Focusing on the relational dimension of some selected works, this essay proposes to consider the subject matter as films with women rather than films of women. The main effort is to understand something that takes place in-between spaces – before and after the camera, but also between viewer and film – and critically reflect on the aesthetic, ethical and political potential that a cinema marked by different women’s perspectives can bring to light. The author concludes that instead of reflecting a certain proximity between women, most films by contemporary female documentarists in Brazil, are suffering from the impact of the difference in social station between the director and the women being filmed.Less
Focusing on the relational dimension of some selected works, this essay proposes to consider the subject matter as films with women rather than films of women. The main effort is to understand something that takes place in-between spaces – before and after the camera, but also between viewer and film – and critically reflect on the aesthetic, ethical and political potential that a cinema marked by different women’s perspectives can bring to light. The author concludes that instead of reflecting a certain proximity between women, most films by contemporary female documentarists in Brazil, are suffering from the impact of the difference in social station between the director and the women being filmed.
Christine L. Marran
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517901585
- eISBN:
- 9781452958781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517901585.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines how documentarian Tsuchimoto Noriaki created a perceptual field for invisible toxins. I discuss the formal, theoretical, and social modes in Tsuchimoto’s nuclear and medical ...
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This chapter examines how documentarian Tsuchimoto Noriaki created a perceptual field for invisible toxins. I discuss the formal, theoretical, and social modes in Tsuchimoto’s nuclear and medical films, paying particular attention to what I call his “optics of ambulation,” his refusal of montage, and his capture of the impact of toxins over time--what Rob Nixon calls “slow violence.”Less
This chapter examines how documentarian Tsuchimoto Noriaki created a perceptual field for invisible toxins. I discuss the formal, theoretical, and social modes in Tsuchimoto’s nuclear and medical films, paying particular attention to what I call his “optics of ambulation,” his refusal of montage, and his capture of the impact of toxins over time--what Rob Nixon calls “slow violence.”
Rebecca J. Kinney
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780816697564
- eISBN:
- 9781452955162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816697564.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
The fourth chapter examines the story of opportunity in the face of hardship in two recent documentary films, Deforce and Detropia. The premise of the documentary film enables the narrative of ...
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The fourth chapter examines the story of opportunity in the face of hardship in two recent documentary films, Deforce and Detropia. The premise of the documentary film enables the narrative of possibility through the persistent belief of real Detroiters. The chapter turns to the ways in which the myth of the contemporary postindustrial frontier, much like the myth of the historical frontier in American culture, operates not only as a physical place but also as an ideological symbol to suggest the potential of hardworking and determined individuals against all odds. Even as the present is portrayed as bleak, the narrative resolution of Detroit’s uncertain future nearly always falls back on a retrenchment of the American idea of success through individual hard work and determination.Less
The fourth chapter examines the story of opportunity in the face of hardship in two recent documentary films, Deforce and Detropia. The premise of the documentary film enables the narrative of possibility through the persistent belief of real Detroiters. The chapter turns to the ways in which the myth of the contemporary postindustrial frontier, much like the myth of the historical frontier in American culture, operates not only as a physical place but also as an ideological symbol to suggest the potential of hardworking and determined individuals against all odds. Even as the present is portrayed as bleak, the narrative resolution of Detroit’s uncertain future nearly always falls back on a retrenchment of the American idea of success through individual hard work and determination.
Kathleen M. German
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496812353
- eISBN:
- 9781496812391
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496812353.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Considering their historically marginalized place in American democracy, one wonders why African Americans bothered to fight in any American conflict. This conundrum is especially perplexing in World ...
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Considering their historically marginalized place in American democracy, one wonders why African Americans bothered to fight in any American conflict. This conundrum is especially perplexing in World War II, a war to free millions from tyranny. Scholars have neglected to ask the fundamental question; why did the African American community send thousands of men to fight for a democratic way of life in which they could not fully participate? The answers to this question, and there are undoubtedly multiple responses, may shed light on contemporary quandaries–situations that involve military mobilization for the good, not of the whole society, but of narrow constituencies. This is the central question of this book. The chapters explore the cultural context where citizenship for African Americans was negotiated through military service.Less
Considering their historically marginalized place in American democracy, one wonders why African Americans bothered to fight in any American conflict. This conundrum is especially perplexing in World War II, a war to free millions from tyranny. Scholars have neglected to ask the fundamental question; why did the African American community send thousands of men to fight for a democratic way of life in which they could not fully participate? The answers to this question, and there are undoubtedly multiple responses, may shed light on contemporary quandaries–situations that involve military mobilization for the good, not of the whole society, but of narrow constituencies. This is the central question of this book. The chapters explore the cultural context where citizenship for African Americans was negotiated through military service.
Keith Beattie
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036590
- eISBN:
- 9780252093647
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036590.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter presents an interview with D. A. Pennebaker conducted by Jonathan Marlow in March 2006 during a tribute to Pennebaker at the Documentary Film Institute. Topics covered include his film ...
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This chapter presents an interview with D. A. Pennebaker conducted by Jonathan Marlow in March 2006 during a tribute to Pennebaker at the Documentary Film Institute. Topics covered include his film Daybreak Express as one of the most stunning shorts ever made and at what point he decided to use Ellington as the springboard; the experiences that made him decide to pursue a career as a filmmaker; how he met Robert Drew; how much of his work with Drew, Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles was a matter of being in the right place at the right time; the unconventional editing for Dont Look Back; and the appeal of working with artists during a transitional stage in their careers.Less
This chapter presents an interview with D. A. Pennebaker conducted by Jonathan Marlow in March 2006 during a tribute to Pennebaker at the Documentary Film Institute. Topics covered include his film Daybreak Express as one of the most stunning shorts ever made and at what point he decided to use Ellington as the springboard; the experiences that made him decide to pursue a career as a filmmaker; how he met Robert Drew; how much of his work with Drew, Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles was a matter of being in the right place at the right time; the unconventional editing for Dont Look Back; and the appeal of working with artists during a transitional stage in their careers.
Kerreen Ely-Harper
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474419475
- eISBN:
- 9781474444699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419475.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
In this essay, the author proposes to demonstrate how Rea Tajiri in History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashig (USA, 1991) moves through three stages in her filmmaking process; (1) embodiment (2) ...
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In this essay, the author proposes to demonstrate how Rea Tajiri in History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashig (USA, 1991) moves through three stages in her filmmaking process; (1) embodiment (2) distillation and (3) re-representation. These processes (as distinct from the commercial stages of producing a film) can be seen to parallel the narrative and trauma theory models of transformation from incoherence to coherence through the reconstruction of the autobiographical memory narrative. The author concludes that “Tajiri’s work demonstrates that the documentary film format can be a space for working through transgenerational trauma, difficult and forgotten histories.”Less
In this essay, the author proposes to demonstrate how Rea Tajiri in History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashig (USA, 1991) moves through three stages in her filmmaking process; (1) embodiment (2) distillation and (3) re-representation. These processes (as distinct from the commercial stages of producing a film) can be seen to parallel the narrative and trauma theory models of transformation from incoherence to coherence through the reconstruction of the autobiographical memory narrative. The author concludes that “Tajiri’s work demonstrates that the documentary film format can be a space for working through transgenerational trauma, difficult and forgotten histories.”
Faye Ginsburg
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249800
- eISBN:
- 9780823252480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249800.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores questions about Judaism, disability, and technology from the vantage point of a group of documentary film-makers and other activists concerned with the place of the physically ...
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This chapter explores questions about Judaism, disability, and technology from the vantage point of a group of documentary film-makers and other activists concerned with the place of the physically and mentally disabled within modern Ashkenazic Jewish community. The chapter examines a series of films that document religious, scientific, and popular conceptions of Jewish community as a shared genetic heritage, the ways such evidence has been used to silence or hide the presence of disabled Jews, and the strategies deployed by activists to re-imagine Jewish kinship and to redefine the notion of the human as made in God's image. Examples discussed include: Liebe Perla, a film about a short-statured Holocaust survivor; Praying with Lior, which focuses on the religious life of a Jewish boy with Down syndrome; and the recent proliferation of Internet-mediated forums for “cyber-kinship” that are enabling Jews born with genetic diseases to network with one another and to achieve a visible presence that is transforming Jewish public culture.Less
This chapter explores questions about Judaism, disability, and technology from the vantage point of a group of documentary film-makers and other activists concerned with the place of the physically and mentally disabled within modern Ashkenazic Jewish community. The chapter examines a series of films that document religious, scientific, and popular conceptions of Jewish community as a shared genetic heritage, the ways such evidence has been used to silence or hide the presence of disabled Jews, and the strategies deployed by activists to re-imagine Jewish kinship and to redefine the notion of the human as made in God's image. Examples discussed include: Liebe Perla, a film about a short-statured Holocaust survivor; Praying with Lior, which focuses on the religious life of a Jewish boy with Down syndrome; and the recent proliferation of Internet-mediated forums for “cyber-kinship” that are enabling Jews born with genetic diseases to network with one another and to achieve a visible presence that is transforming Jewish public culture.
George Kouvaros
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816695560
- eISBN:
- 9781452953540
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816695560.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The introduction outlines Robert Frank’s life and development as a filmmaker and photographer. His works always depicted a narrative in one way or another. He also used striking images and a ...
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The introduction outlines Robert Frank’s life and development as a filmmaker and photographer. His works always depicted a narrative in one way or another. He also used striking images and a documentary point of view to capture the way of life for everyday Americans. Kouvaros connects Frank’s film The Americans to contemporary Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Finally, the introduction explains how being a photographer impacted Frank’s filmmaking style and decisions.Less
The introduction outlines Robert Frank’s life and development as a filmmaker and photographer. His works always depicted a narrative in one way or another. He also used striking images and a documentary point of view to capture the way of life for everyday Americans. Kouvaros connects Frank’s film The Americans to contemporary Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Finally, the introduction explains how being a photographer impacted Frank’s filmmaking style and decisions.
Peter Sutoris
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190608323
- eISBN:
- 9780190663001
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190608323.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This book examines the Indian state's postcolonial development ideology between Independence in 1947 and the Emergency of 1975-77. It pioneers a novel methodology for the study of development thought ...
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This book examines the Indian state's postcolonial development ideology between Independence in 1947 and the Emergency of 1975-77. It pioneers a novel methodology for the study of development thought and its cinematic representations, analyzing films made by the Films Division of India between 1948 and 1975. By comparing these documentaries to late-colonial films on “progress”, the book highlights continuities with and departures from colonial notions of development in modern India. It is the first scholarly volume to be published on the history of Indian documentary film. Of the approximately 250 documentaries analyzed in the book, many of which have never been discussed in the existing literature, most are concerned with economic planning and industrialization, large dams, family planning, schemes aimed at the integration of tribal peoples (Adivasis) into society, and civic education.Less
This book examines the Indian state's postcolonial development ideology between Independence in 1947 and the Emergency of 1975-77. It pioneers a novel methodology for the study of development thought and its cinematic representations, analyzing films made by the Films Division of India between 1948 and 1975. By comparing these documentaries to late-colonial films on “progress”, the book highlights continuities with and departures from colonial notions of development in modern India. It is the first scholarly volume to be published on the history of Indian documentary film. Of the approximately 250 documentaries analyzed in the book, many of which have never been discussed in the existing literature, most are concerned with economic planning and industrialization, large dams, family planning, schemes aimed at the integration of tribal peoples (Adivasis) into society, and civic education.
Kate Parker Horigan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817884
- eISBN:
- 9781496817921
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817884.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s 2008 documentary film Trouble the Water. The filmmakers use unique documentary techniques that incorporate narrators’ engagement with the processes of ...
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This chapter examines Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s 2008 documentary film Trouble the Water. The filmmakers use unique documentary techniques that incorporate narrators’ engagement with the processes of their story’s publication. The film includes survivor Kim Roberts’ own footage, shot during Katrina on her handheld camera. Kim’s role as documentarian is foregrounded, and in some striking scenes she expresses her awareness about the value of her story and its likelihood of circulating among particular kinds of audiences. The filmmakers successfully integrate survivors’ own critiques of the discourses that typically represent them, and through this and other methods, create what Dominick LaCapra calls “empathic unsettlement.” However, the film’s optimistic conclusion evokes a dominant narrative of racial uplift, with a neoliberal twist that undermines the powerful work the film is otherwise performing.Less
This chapter examines Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s 2008 documentary film Trouble the Water. The filmmakers use unique documentary techniques that incorporate narrators’ engagement with the processes of their story’s publication. The film includes survivor Kim Roberts’ own footage, shot during Katrina on her handheld camera. Kim’s role as documentarian is foregrounded, and in some striking scenes she expresses her awareness about the value of her story and its likelihood of circulating among particular kinds of audiences. The filmmakers successfully integrate survivors’ own critiques of the discourses that typically represent them, and through this and other methods, create what Dominick LaCapra calls “empathic unsettlement.” However, the film’s optimistic conclusion evokes a dominant narrative of racial uplift, with a neoliberal twist that undermines the powerful work the film is otherwise performing.
Nima Naghibi
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780816683826
- eISBN:
- 9781452954400
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816683826.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This monograph examines the popular trend among diasporic Iranian women to produce auto/biographical narratives through a variety of genres: published memoirs, documentary films, comics, and social ...
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This monograph examines the popular trend among diasporic Iranian women to produce auto/biographical narratives through a variety of genres: published memoirs, documentary films, comics, and social media. Contemporary diasporic Iranian memoirs, Naghibi claims, are particularly interesting in their mediation of the diasporic experience through the authors' memories of pre-revolutionary 1970s Iran, thus placing the concepts of memory and nostalgia, and questions of testimony and witness, at the heart of these narratives.
This monograph explores the phenomenon of diasporic Iranian women’s life narratives in English in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, arguing that what ties these disparate narratives together is the experience of the 1979 revolution as a traumatic event, and the expression of a powerful nostalgia for an idealized past. The title of this book, Righting the Past, invokes a double entendre that draws attention to the important work of setting right historical injustices through the act of writing life narratives. This book posits the importance of writing as an articulation of memory, and as an assertion of human rights. By drawing on the empathy of the reader-spectator-witness, life narratives, argues Naghibi, offer the possibility of extending to their subjects a recognition of their humanity.Less
This monograph examines the popular trend among diasporic Iranian women to produce auto/biographical narratives through a variety of genres: published memoirs, documentary films, comics, and social media. Contemporary diasporic Iranian memoirs, Naghibi claims, are particularly interesting in their mediation of the diasporic experience through the authors' memories of pre-revolutionary 1970s Iran, thus placing the concepts of memory and nostalgia, and questions of testimony and witness, at the heart of these narratives.
This monograph explores the phenomenon of diasporic Iranian women’s life narratives in English in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, arguing that what ties these disparate narratives together is the experience of the 1979 revolution as a traumatic event, and the expression of a powerful nostalgia for an idealized past. The title of this book, Righting the Past, invokes a double entendre that draws attention to the important work of setting right historical injustices through the act of writing life narratives. This book posits the importance of writing as an articulation of memory, and as an assertion of human rights. By drawing on the empathy of the reader-spectator-witness, life narratives, argues Naghibi, offer the possibility of extending to their subjects a recognition of their humanity.
Paul McCormick
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099335
- eISBN:
- 9781781708613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099335.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Paul McCormick takes a narratological approach in examining the cinematic qualities of House of Leaves as part of the book’s ‘media interface.’ Borrowing the term ‘affordance’ from ecological ...
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Paul McCormick takes a narratological approach in examining the cinematic qualities of House of Leaves as part of the book’s ‘media interface.’ Borrowing the term ‘affordance’ from ecological psychologist J. J. Gibson, which signifies both the inherent properties of an artefact and its perceived usage, McCormick proposes that Danielewski transposes the media affordances of cinema into the book medium in four central ways: a video diary, the perceptual frame of a surveillance camera, the concept of cinematic montage, and a documentary film. These borrowings create what McCormick calls a ‘postmodern uncertainty’ and a ‘level of indeterminacy’ which render the novel both eternally incomplete and firmly situated within the media environment of 1990s America.Less
Paul McCormick takes a narratological approach in examining the cinematic qualities of House of Leaves as part of the book’s ‘media interface.’ Borrowing the term ‘affordance’ from ecological psychologist J. J. Gibson, which signifies both the inherent properties of an artefact and its perceived usage, McCormick proposes that Danielewski transposes the media affordances of cinema into the book medium in four central ways: a video diary, the perceptual frame of a surveillance camera, the concept of cinematic montage, and a documentary film. These borrowings create what McCormick calls a ‘postmodern uncertainty’ and a ‘level of indeterminacy’ which render the novel both eternally incomplete and firmly situated within the media environment of 1990s America.
Christine L. Marran
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517901585
- eISBN:
- 9781452958781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517901585.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter introduces my concept of the “biotrope” to navigate the broader question of why and how the material world has proven to be such an effective medium for representing culture. It then ...
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This chapter introduces my concept of the “biotrope” to navigate the broader question of why and how the material world has proven to be such an effective medium for representing culture. It then argues that ecocriticism needs to be more skeptical about cultural claims. The chapter then shows how literature, poetry, and film are at their most critical and effective when they are not made to replicate our desire for a world that appears to be made by and for specific human collectives or the anthropos.Less
This chapter introduces my concept of the “biotrope” to navigate the broader question of why and how the material world has proven to be such an effective medium for representing culture. It then argues that ecocriticism needs to be more skeptical about cultural claims. The chapter then shows how literature, poetry, and film are at their most critical and effective when they are not made to replicate our desire for a world that appears to be made by and for specific human collectives or the anthropos.
Christine L. Marran
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517901585
- eISBN:
- 9781452958781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517901585.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter identifies a mode of storytelling that foregrounds material relations among beings as fundamental to narrative and calls this form of expression “obligate storytelling.” Obligate ...
More
This chapter identifies a mode of storytelling that foregrounds material relations among beings as fundamental to narrative and calls this form of expression “obligate storytelling.” Obligate storytelling produces a deep sense of relation among diverse subjects and addresses the conditions of existence for beings and matter in an aesthetic ontology that refuses humanist writing traditions, eschews authorial flourish, and rejects institutionally privileged language.Less
This chapter identifies a mode of storytelling that foregrounds material relations among beings as fundamental to narrative and calls this form of expression “obligate storytelling.” Obligate storytelling produces a deep sense of relation among diverse subjects and addresses the conditions of existence for beings and matter in an aesthetic ontology that refuses humanist writing traditions, eschews authorial flourish, and rejects institutionally privileged language.
Christine L. Marran
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517901585
- eISBN:
- 9781452958781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517901585.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter introduces the concept of a “domestic turn” in ecocritical poetry and fiction that consciously demands that biotropes refuse the rural and urban dialectic. Representation under what I ...
More
This chapter introduces the concept of a “domestic turn” in ecocritical poetry and fiction that consciously demands that biotropes refuse the rural and urban dialectic. Representation under what I call this “domestic turn” in ecocritical writing in the production of biotropes conveys a deep sense of vulnerability of humans, plants and animals to contamination that goes beyond the familiar rural/urban dialectic.Less
This chapter introduces the concept of a “domestic turn” in ecocritical poetry and fiction that consciously demands that biotropes refuse the rural and urban dialectic. Representation under what I call this “domestic turn” in ecocritical writing in the production of biotropes conveys a deep sense of vulnerability of humans, plants and animals to contamination that goes beyond the familiar rural/urban dialectic.
