Understanding Film

Film theory has a reputation for being challenging. Often requiring time and effort to fully grasp it and seeming rather old-fashioned, it can be difficult to approach the subject with enthusiasm and

Laughing Matters takes an analytic approach to film, television and radio comedy and provides an accessible overview of its forms and contexts. The introduction explains the value of studying comedy,

Laughing Matters takes an analytic approach to film, television and radio comedy and provides an accessible overview of its forms and contexts. The introduction explains the value of studying comedy,

Marxism and Film share at least one thing in common: they are both interested in the masses.From the introductionFilm remains one of the most dominant cultural forms in the world today. Crossing clas

"Marxism and Film share at least one thing in common: they are both interested in the masses."From the introductionFilm remains one of the most dominant cultural forms in the world today. Crossing cla

Martin Flanagan uses Bakhtins notions of dialogism, chronotope and polyphony to address fundamental questions about film form and reception, focusing particularly on the way cinematic narrative utiliz

The perfect small-format, one-stop resource to appreciating and understanding films from Hollywood to Bollywood. Following the success of Isms: Understanding Art and Isms: Understanding Architectural

Here at last is an introduction to film theory and its history without the jargon. Noted film scholar V. F. Perkins presents criteria for expanding our understanding and enjoyment of movies. He employ

The musical leitmotif, having reached a point of particular forcefulness in the music of Richard Wagner, has remained a popular compositional device up to the present day. In this book, Matthew Bribitzer-Stull explores the background and development of the leitmotif, from Wagner to the Hollywood adaptations of The Lord of The Rings and the Harry Potter series. Analyzing both concert music and film music, Bribitzer-Stull explains what the leitmotif is and establishes it as the union of two aspects: the thematic and the associative. He goes on to show that Wagner's Ring cycle provides a leitmotivic paradigm, a model from which we can learn to better understand the leitmotif across style periods. Arguing for a renewed interest in the artistic merit of the leitmotif, Bribitzer-Stull reveals how uniting meaning, memory, and emotion in music can lead to a richer listening experience and a better understanding of dramatic music's enduring appeal.

"Motion pictures, their contexts and impact are central to the study of American history of the past 225 years. Mintz, Roberts, and Welky do a superb job of placing key movies in their cultural moment

The musical leitmotif, having reached a point of particular forcefulness in the music of Richard Wagner, has remained a popular compositional device up to the present day. In this book, Matthew Bribitzer-Stull explores the background and development of the leitmotif, from Wagner to the Hollywood adaptations of The Lord of The Rings and the Harry Potter series. Analyzing both concert music and film music, Bribitzer-Stull explains what the leitmotif is and establishes it as the union of two aspects: the thematic and the associative. He goes on to show that Wagner's Ring cycle provides a leitmotivic paradigm, a model from which we can learn to better understand the leitmotif across style periods. Arguing for a renewed interest in the artistic merit of the leitmotif, Bribitzer-Stull reveals how uniting meaning, memory, and emotion in music can lead to a richer listening experience and a better understanding of dramatic music's enduring appeal.

Understanding Sound Tracks Through Film Theory breaks new ground by redirecting the arguments of foundational texts within film theory to film sound tracks. Walker includes sustained analyses of parti

Understanding Sound Tracks Through Film Theory breaks new ground by redirecting the arguments of foundational texts within film theory to film sound tracks. Walker includes sustained analyses of parti

This collection of original essays, written by scholars from disciplines across the humanities, addresses a wide range of questions about love through a focus on individual films, novels, plays, and w

This collection of original essays, written by scholars from disciplines across the humanities, addresses a wide range of questions about love through a focus on individual films, novels, plays, and w

Drawing on first-hand materials collected from the Chinese and Japanese literature as well as interviews with more than twenty filmmakers and scholars Kinnia Shuk-ting Yau provides a solid historical

Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince remains an influential book more than five centuries after he wrote his timeless classic. However, the political philosophy expressed by Machiavelli in his tome is oft

Most of the 22 contributions in this collection are based on papers presented to an interdisciplinary conference in Bielefeld, Germany from February to March 2007, but a number were added to round out

Latin American History Goes to the Movies combines the study of the rich history of Latin America with the medium of feature film. In this concise and accessible book, author Stewart Brewer helps stud

Latin American History Goes to the Movies combines the study of the rich history of Latin America with the medium of feature film. Author Stewart Brewer provides students the opportunity to participat

Machiavelli’s The Prince is an important modern work of political science, but it is also one that has been often misinterpreted by students and scholars. This work helps the reader to better understa

The latest in the best-selling Isms series-which includes Isms: Understanding Art, Isms: Understanding Architectural Styles, Isms: Understanding Fashion, and Isms: Understanding Religion-is Film...Ism

Music has more emotional value than any other single element in film. This book is designed for the aspiring filmmaker to fully realize the potential of this powerful tool. Written in understandable d

With some additional contributions invited to round out this volume, most of contributions are based on papers presented at a 2007 conference at the U. of Bielefeld, Germany. An introductory essay and

Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder introduces scholars and students to the controversial and prolific but brief career of a filmmaker hailed as one of the New German Cinema's most talented exponen

Slavoj Žižek is one of today’s leading theorists, whose polemical works span topics from German idealism to Lacanian psychoanalysis, from Shakespeare to Beckett, and from Hitchcock to Lynch. Critical through and through of both post-modern ideological complacencies―e.g., the death of the subject and the return to ethics―and pre-modern ones―e.g., the re-enchantment of the world, the embrace of postcritique―Žižek doubles down on the virtues of the modern, on what it means to be modern, and to ask modern questions (about the subject, nature, and political economy) in the age of the Anthropocene. This volume takes up the challenges laid out by Žižek’s iconoclastic thinking and its reverberations in an array of fields: philosophy, psychoanalysis, political theory, literary studies, and film studies, among others. Žižek’s multi-disciplinary appeal attests to the provocation, if not scandal, of his politically incorrect thought. Understanding Žižek, Understanding Modernism makes the force

Understanding Merleau-Ponty, Understanding Modernism brings into dialogue Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology with modernist art, literature, music, film and neurophysiological discoveries, opening

Our love of film often leads us to discuss the cinema in enthusiastic, if not necessarily sophisticated, conversations. Many moviegoers want a better understanding of what they have seen so that they

Through in-depth analysis of different types of film, TV and online content, Understanding Media Production examines whether media theory can help inform good practice in media production. Using real-

There is much to be gained from a synthesis of critical/disability studies with film studies. This groundbreaking book analyses representations of disability in comedy films, arguing that meanings o