A World in Chaos
Social Crisis and the Rise of Postmodern Cinema
By (author) Carl Boggs National University; author of The Two Revolutions: Gramsci and the Dilemma, Thomas Pollard
Publication date:
25 August 2003Length of book:
336 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
227x149mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780742532892
A World in Chaos: Social Crisis and the Rise of Postmodern Cinema traces the evolution of postmodern cinema through its multiple and overlapping expressions. Through an analysis of films such as American Beauty, Blade Runner, Natural Born Killers, and Thelma and Loiuse, Carl Boggs and Thomas Pollard explore the historical and theoretical shift from the long era of modernity to an emergent postmodernity and examine its intersection with film culture. Unlike most works on media studies, Boggs and Pollard bring together elements of sociology, history, economics, literature, communications, and pop culture to fully explore the complex developmental interaction between film and society.
The resulting work illuminates the different, often conflicted and contradictory, currents at work in the film industry that long ago departed from the ritualized practices of the classical studio system. Engagingly and clearly written, A World in Chaos is perfect for film and pop culture enthusiasts as well as everyone interested in the role of film in American society.
The resulting work illuminates the different, often conflicted and contradictory, currents at work in the film industry that long ago departed from the ritualized practices of the classical studio system. Engagingly and clearly written, A World in Chaos is perfect for film and pop culture enthusiasts as well as everyone interested in the role of film in American society.
This is a work of major importance. A brilliant analysis of the contradictory currents within the contemporary film industry; exemplary in its use of critical social theory to account for the evolving character of American film, especially the emergence of the antipolitical film. What makes this volume both unique and urgent not only is the accomplished way the authors are able to situate film production and reception within wider cultural, economic, political, and intellectual transformations but also the authors' sophisticated grasp of media culture.