The Crisis of Political Modernism - Criticism and Ideology in Contemporary Film Criticism (Paperback, 1st Paperback Ed)

This is a critical analysis of the development of film theory since 1968. It shows how debates concerning the literary principles of modernism - semiotics, structuralism, psychoanalysis, Marxism and feminism - have transformed our understanding of cinematic meaning. The author explores the literary paradigms established in France during the late 1960s and traces their influence on the work of diverse filmmakers/theorists including Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Gidal, Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen. By exploring the "new French feminisms" of Irigaray and Kristeva, he investigates the relation of political modernism to psychoanalysis and theories of sexual difference.