Literature and cinema

Review of Nayibe Bermúdez Barrios´s "Latin American Cinemas: Local Views and Transnational Connections." Calgary: U of Calgary P, 2011. Pp. 333. ISBN 978-1-55238-514-2.

by Santiago Juan-Navarro

Published in Hispania 95.2 (2012): 344–75

La conversion de Pirandello au cinéma

by Fabio Andreazza

published in 'Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales', 161/162 (mars 2006)

In 1915, Pirandello publishes Si gira (Shoot!), a novel whose main protagonist/ narrator is a movie operator. This... more In 1915, Pirandello publishes Si gira (Shoot!), a novel whose main protagonist/ narrator is a movie operator. This work bears witness both to his interest in the new art, and to the low esteem in which he held it. Pirandello’s distrust seems to be related to his specific social dispositions as a provincial and to the structural antagonism that opposed him, a yet little known writer defending a very demanding conception of art, to D’Annunzio and the Futurists, who were already famous and were then the only Italian writers defending cinema. Pirandello’s position changes considerably in the early 1920s. The success of Six Characters in Search of An Author launches his international career and makes him aware that the cinematographic field is much wider and more differentiated than what he had initially thought in the 1910s. The work of some directors seemed to confirm that transposing his own poetics into film was possible. He then conceived the project of a movie adapted from his most famous theater play and even entertained the notion of triggering a cinematographic revolution as important as the one he had accomplished for theater.

En 1915 Pirandello publie On tourne, un roman dont le protagoniste / narrateur est un opérateur de cinéma. Ce texte témoigne de son intérêt pour le nouvel art, mais aussi du peu de considération qu’il lui accorde. La méfiance de Pirandello semble liée à ses dispositions de provincial et à l’antagonisme structural qui l’oppose, comme écrivain attaché à une conception exigeante de l’art et encore peu connu, à D’Annunzio et aux futuristes qui, déjà célèbres, sont les rares écrivains italiens de l’époque à défendre le cinéma. La position de Pirandello change considérablement au début des années 1920. La carrière internationale que lui ouvre le succès de Six personnages en quête d’auteur, lui donne l’occasion de mesurer que l’espace cinématographique est plus vaste et plus différencié qu’il ne le pensait dans l’Italie des années 1910. Certains metteurs en scène lui paraissent témoigner de la possibilité de produire des films conformes à sa poétique. Il conçoit alors le projet d’un film tiré de sa pièce la plus célèbre et affiche même l’ambition de réaliser dans le cinéma une révolution analogue à celle qu’il avait opérée dans le théâtre.

Поверх барьеров: Павел Вежинов

by Lyubov Bugaeva

Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Серия 9. Филология, востоковедение, журналистика. 2010. Вып. 3. С. 12–18.

Статья посвящена фантастической прозе болгарского писателя Павла Вежинова в контексте традиции русской фантастики. В... more Статья посвящена фантастической прозе болгарского писателя Павла Вежинова в контексте традиции русской фантастики. В основе повести и фильма «Барьер» – колебание в выборе мотивировки происходящего (реалистической или фантастической). В результате, фантастика предстает как «опыт границ», позволяющий выйти за пределы повседневного опыта. Вежинов движется в направлении, заданном Тарковским в «Солярисе», продолжая психологическую линию в фантастической литературе и кинематографии. «Барьер» Вежинова – своеобразный rite de passage, в который вовлечены герои произведения и сам автор.

Mourir dans la moyenne, à 130 à l’heure

by Claudia Bouliane

Dans François Provenzano et Sarah Sindaco (dir.), La Fabrique du Français moyen. Productions culturelles et imaginaire social dans la France gaullienne (1958-1981), Bruxelles, Le Cri / CIEL-ULB-ULg, 2009, p. 65-77

Au cours des années 1950, la normalisation de l’usage de l’automobile entraîne des modifications capitales dans la... more Au cours des années 1950, la normalisation de l’usage de l’automobile entraîne des modifications capitales dans la conception de la vie humaine, que ce soit sur le plan des relations entre les individus, des rapports au temps et à l’espace, etc. La «nouvelle quotidienneté sublime» (Ross ; 2006 ; 39) qu’est la voiture frappe à ce point l’imaginaire social européen et américain que se constitue une «mythologie de l’automobile» (Barthes). Cependant, dès le début des années 1960, l’augmentation inquiétante du taux d’accidents de la route, particulièrement en France (l’hécatombe routière y connaît son sommet en 1972 avec 16 548 morts, selon l’ONISR), provoque un fort désenchantement et conduit à une réévaluation du mythe de l’automobile. Ce renversement du mythe est accentué par une série d’événements tragiquement célèbres (morts de James Dean, d’Albert Camus, de Jayne Mainsfield, etc.). De la Bardot de Godard (Le Mépris, 1962) qui périt dans une décapotable au roman culte Crash que publie J. G. Ballard en 1973, en passant par la célèbre série «Death and Disaster» de Warhol (1962-1964), des représentations culturelles de l’accident routier se multiplient tout au long de la Ve République. La littérature reprend cet élément fascinateur, le complexifie et le déplace, trouve des moyens poétiques et narratifs pour explorer toutes les facettes de la nouveauté technologique et sociologique que sont la conduite automobile et des risques qu’elle peut faire courir.

Sur la carte de l’imaginaire, les embouteillages et les attroupements autour des accidents de voiture en viennent à métaphoriser une résistance au changement social donnée pour typiquement française et dont le « Français moyen » serait l’incarnation symbolique. Entre autres représentations alimentées par ce thème, le blocage apparaît de façon particulièrement significative dans le film Week-end de Jean-Luc Godard et dans le roman Les Choses de la vie de Paul Guimard. Produites la même année, en 1967, et traitant du même phénomène social, la motorisation de la France, ces œuvres sont très différentes sur le plan idéologique. La première, œuvre-choc exigeante et chérie de la critique godardienne, se situe dans la lignée du marxisme : elle critique la modernisation bourgeoise et l’idéologie dominante. À l’opposé, la seconde répond au goût du grand public et tend à défendre des valeurs bourgeoises. Or, en dépit de cet antagonisme idéologique, l’analyse révèle que ces deux œuvres mettent en récit à la fois l’accident, l’embouteillage et l’attroupement d’une façon similaire.

CFP: International Film and Media Studies Journal: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

by Ágnes Pethő

The International, peer-reviewed, open access journal of the Sapientia University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) invites the submission of original, previously unpublished articles written in English. Articles in all areas of film and media studies are welcome. Deadline for the next issue: June 15, 2012. Previous issue available online here: http://www.acta.sapientia.ro/acta-film/, and here: http://issuu.com/actauniversitatissapientiae/docs/film4_2011

Wish You Were Here: A film review

by Rachael Hains-Wesson

Perry, J. "Wish You Were Here: A film review", ed. Rachael Hains-Wesson, Trove, 2012.

"An Art That Won't Behave": Film and the Seven Arts, 1907-1921

by Michael Devine

American Literature 84.1 (March 2012): 89-117

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, American artists connected to the journal the Seven Arts sought to... more In the first two decades of the twentieth century, American artists connected to the journal the Seven Arts sought to transform the cinema into an indigenous art free from European influence. Precisely because the cinema was “an art that won't behave,” as the journal's first essay on film put it, it depended on the arts as tutor texts in the effort to restrain sensory disorder and reinvigorate communal life. Wholly absent from critical treatments that see film as a model for the most kinetic modernist practices, the journal provides entry to a richly interdisciplinary history of American cinema: in the critical writings and poetry of the journal's contributors, including James Oppenheim, Waldo Frank, Vachel Lindsay, Stephen Vincent Benét, and Babette Deutsch, and in the works of artists close to the journal—John Sloan's painting Movies, Five Cents (1907) and Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler's abstract film Manhatta (1921). Imagined as a shelter from the most dispiriting forces of urban-industrial modernity, the cinema was at once embraced, challenged, and idealized by these artists who practiced what Wanda Corn has called a “transcendent modernism.”

"Tensional Differences": The Anxiety of Re-Mediation in Jean-Luc Godard’s New Wave Films

by Ágnes Pethő

Essay in the recently re-launched Vertigo Magazine, a special issue dedicated to the provocative cinema of Jean-Luc Godard.

This essay discusses the way in which Godard, in his films made during the period of the Nouvelle Vague, addresses the... more This essay discusses the way in which Godard, in his films made during the period of the Nouvelle Vague, addresses the issues regarding the rivalry between the emerging modern cinema and the other arts and media.

From Poetic Imagination to Imaging: Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination in Poetry

by Arezou Zalipour

Arezou Zalipour. 2011. “From Imaging to Poetic Imagination: Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination”. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 481-494.

When we consider what constitutes the essence of poetry, we are confronted with a variety of questions none of which... more When we consider what constitutes the essence of poetry, we are confronted with a variety of questions none of which may be answered with final satisfaction. One feature that seems to emerge repeatedly through time is the notion of imagination and the term ‘poetic imagination’ to depict the emotional, imaginative, intellectual and the expressive language used to reflect the writer’s consciousness. This paper primarily discusses the core finding of my research in the concepts, theories and ideas of poetic imagination. The research characterizes a series of modes of imagination in contemporary poetry. These modes have been drawn from the existing notions and concepts of poetic imagination. The research identifies that imagination in contemporary poetry moves more towards imaging rather than poetic imagination. In other words, imagination shows greater affinity to imaging in contemporary poetry. This paper aims to present the significant contribution of the overall research which is the conceptualization of a paradigm of various modes of imagination in contemporary poetry, with imaging and poetic imagination as its two ends. Other modes of creative imagination reside between imaging and poetic imagination.

[Keywords: contemporary notions of poetic imagination, modes of imagination, imaging, creative imagination, poetry, theories of imagination]

Prosaic Imagination in Contemporary Personal Poetry

by Arezou Zalipour

Arezou Zalipour. 2011. “Prosaic Imagination in Contemporary Personal Poetry”. Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 68-86. ISSN 1905 - 856X.

Note: this paper was originally published in Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society. I was granted the permission to upload it on Academia.edu.

Contemporary poets are inspired to write about their personal lives and experiences. This can be considered as a... more Contemporary poets are inspired to write about their personal lives and experiences. This can be considered as a reaction to T. S. Eliot’s idea of a poem as “impersonality,” or the trend of hiding a personal life behind a poem’s mask. The willingness to write personal poetry goes back to the breakthrough of the American Confessional Movement of the late 1950s. It established a tradition in poetry that has evolved and survived until today. Personal poetry is an attempt to express concerns about the individual’s worth and the value of life in a modern and seemingly strange world. The contemporary poet’s choice of writing about himself and his life has influenced the nature of creative imagination in contemporary poetry. This tendency affects and limits the manifestations of creative imagination in poetry.This paper aims to investigate and discuss this phenomenon. The conceptual framework consists of the
examination and discussion of types of images and features of poetic imagination in the selected samples of contemporary personal poetry. The significant contribution of the study is conceptualisation of the prosaic imagination as a dominant mode of creative imaginatio

[Appel à communications] de la 2ème édition de la journée d'études "Game Studies ? à la française !" intitulée "Les jeuX vidéo au pluriel. Quelles diversités ? Industries, métiers, interfaces, règles, publics, pratiques, circonstances, expériences, mémoires."

by Manuel Boutet

Bonjour,

La deuxième édition de la journée d'études "Game Studies ? à la française !" aura... more
Bonjour,

La deuxième édition de la journée d'études "Game Studies ? à la française !" aura lieu les 16 et 17 juin prochains à Paris. Cet événement est organisé par l'association OMNSH (Observatoire des Mondes Numériques en Sciences Humaines - www.omnsh.org).

Cette 2ème édition sera intitulée : "Les jeuX vidéo au pluriel. Quelles diversités ? Industries, métiers, interfaces, règles, publics, pratiques, circonstances, expériences, mémoires."

L'appel à contribution est joint. Les propositions de communications - sous forme de résumé - sont attendues pour le 10 mai.

En mai 2011 la 1ère édition de cette rencontre pluridisciplinaire a vu intervenir 22 chercheurs français de tous les horizons des sciences sociales et des sciences humaines. La 2ème édition des "Game Studies ? à la française !" en juin 2012 sera centrée sur un point de convergence qui est alors apparu : la nécessité de passer de la question DU jeu vidéo à la question DES jeuX vidéo.

N'hésitez pas à faire circuler cet appel.

Cordialement,

Manuel Boutet, pour l'OMNSH (www.omnsh.org)

Post-doctorant à l'IDHE Nanterre
Université de Paris Ouest - Nanterre La Défense

manuel@boutet.com
http://manuel.boutet.com

El ojo, la mirada: representación e imagen en las trazas de la Antropología Visual

by L. Nicolás Guigou

M.M. Winkler, Cinema and Classical Texts. Apollo’s New Light, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, in “Maia” 62 (2-3), 2010: 461-464.

by Tatiana Korneeva

Drei Riten für Cairo - Wie Hollywood die Stadt Cairo erschafft

by Stefan Zimmermann

co-authored with Anton Escher,
in Escher, A. & Koebner, T. (Hrsg.): Mythos Ägypten. West-Östliche Medienperspektiven II. Remscheid. S. 156-168.

Carnage: A film review

by Rachael Hains-Wesson

Perry, J. "Carnage: A film review", eds. Rachael Hains-Wesson & Carol Ryles, Trove, 2012, <www.trove.arts.uwa.edu.au&gt;.

A film review of Carnage by Jen Perry for Trove, an online creative arts journal, at The University of Western Australia A film review of Carnage by Jen Perry for Trove, an online creative arts journal, at The University of Western Australia

Being in The Dreamers

by Gestur Hilmarsson

A paper written for a course on philosophy of film, taught by Prof. Róbert H. Haraldsson in the fall of 2010. Not a final version.

An attempt to phrase and tackle the question on just how justified a viewer is when reading into a film, for example... more An attempt to phrase and tackle the question on just how justified a viewer is when reading into a film, for example philosophically. As primary examples I use and tie together themes from Bernardo Bertolucci's 2003 film The Dreamers and Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist magnum opus Being and Nothingness.

Philistines on the Big Screen: consumerism in Soviet cinema of the Brezhnev era

by Natalya Chernyshova

Published in Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, Vol. 5, No 2 (December 2011), pp 227-54

As living standards improved in the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, the regime was faced with a challenge of growing... more As living standards improved in the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, the regime was faced with a challenge of growing consumerism among its population, especially young people. In these new circumstances, it became important to define the boundaries between acceptable norm and unacceptable excess in socialist consumption, and cinema took an active part in the public discussion that ensued. This article considers a wide range of popular films by a variety of directors, including those that often fall off the film historian’s radar, to assess this contribution and to investigate the filmmakers’ motives for engaging with the topic of consumption. The article argues that the individual’s relationship with material goods was a very prominent theme in Brezhnev-era cinema, but also one fraught with many contradictions, reflecting Soviet society’s own conflicting attitudes to modern consumption

Théorie du cinéma chez Marie-Claire Ropars-Wuilleumier

by Beatrice BLOCH

Literatura y producción audiovisual en Costa Rica: El caso de Fabián Dobles

by Guillermo González Campos

Co-authored with Bernardo Bolaños. Published in Revista Escena, 34, 2011.

Este artículo explora la producción audiovisual hecha a partir de textos literarios de Fabián Dobles. En particular,... more Este artículo explora la producción audiovisual hecha a partir de textos literarios de Fabián Dobles. En particular, se analizan los cortometrajes El hombre de la pierna cruzada (1983) y Tatamundo (1984), con el fin de determinar los intereses que motivaron su escogencia para ser llevadas a la pantalla y la relación que ambas obras manifiestan con respecto al sistema de representaciones de la identidad costarricense defendido por el discurso hegemónico.

Literature and audiovisual production in Costa Rica: The case of Fabián Dobles

This article explores the audiovisual production based on the literary texts of Fabián Dobles. Particularly, it analyzes the short films El hombre de la pierna cruzada (1983) and Tatamundo (1984), with the purpose of determining the interests underlying their choice to be brought to the screen and the relationship both works expressed with respect to the representations of the Costa Rican identity system advocated by the hegemonic discourse.

Word meets image: Racine on silent film

by Kate Tunstall