Cinematic Political Thought

Narrating Race, Nation and Gender

Michael J Shapiro author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Edinburgh University Press

Published:1st Sep '99

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Cinematic Political Thought cover

This book has two aims: to offer a series of investigations into aspects of contemporary politics such as race, nation and gender; and to articulate a critical philosophical perspective with politically disposed treatments of contemporary cinema. What the author offers is a politics of critique, inspired by Kant, in which he attempts to show what it can mean to think the political. The interventions into aspects of contemporary political issues, as reflected in films including Hoop Dreams, Lonestar, Father of the Bride II , The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and To Live and Die in LA, are also influenced by Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault and Lyotard: theorists loosely regarded by the author as post-Kantian. This is a polemical work, aimed at encouraging critical, ethico-political thinking. Its breadth of theoretical scope and empirical reference, and the innovative style of presentation will make it vital reading for all those with an interest in the linking of culture and politics.

Michael Shapiro writes in a relatively new genre of political thought, one that displays a 'postmodern' willingness to discuss literary and cinematic examples alongside canonical texts of political theory, and one that is 'polemical' in the best sense of the term: not seeking to censure or repudiate other views but to pursue an open-ended engagement with political dramas of our time ... Within the terms of this new genre, the book is very successful. -- Professor Paul Patton Michael Shapiro writes in a relatively new genre of political thought, one that displays a 'postmodern' willingness to discuss literary and cinematic examples alongside canonical texts of political theory, and one that is 'polemical' in the best sense of the term: not seeking to censure or repudiate other views but to pursue an open-ended engagement with political dramas of our time ... Within the terms of this new genre, the book is very successful.

ISBN: 9780748612895

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 24mm

Weight: 500g

192 pages