European Film Theory

This collection brings together specially commissioned articles by established and emerging scholars from the disciplines of Film Studies, Philosophy, Critical and Visual Studies, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Aesthetics.The book inquires into the 'Europeanness' of European film theory; explores the philosophical origins of European film theory; reflects on the increasing determination of European film theory by philosophy and the very possibility of 'film-philosophy'; examines the 'culture wars' between 'Continental' and 'Analytical' (Anglo-Saxon) film theory and philosophy as well as major discursive and epistemological shifts in the history of Continental film theory; and foregrounds the continuities (and discontinuities) between Continental philosophy of art (Hegel, Kant, Arnheim, Balazs, Brecht, Lukacs, Adorno, Kracauer) and philosophy of history (Hegel, Eisenstein, Adorno, Benjamin, Kracauer) on one hand, and European film theory on the other hand, between classical and contemporary European film theory, and between cinematic concepts and nineteenth and twentieth century European art movements.It also investigates the concepts of time, space, subjectivity and national identity across a range of theoretical approaches; challenges dominant interpretations of realism and theatricality in cinema; offers new interpretations of major European film theorists; illuminates the political potential of European film theory; and draws connections between theoretical developments in different European countries.