Audience And Empathy Film As A Uniquely Evocative Medium

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Audience and Empathy. Film as a Uniquely Evocative Medium

Author : Timothy McGlinchey
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3668228744
Total Pages : 25 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (682 download)

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Book Synopsis Audience and Empathy. Film as a Uniquely Evocative Medium by : Timothy McGlinchey

Download or read book Audience and Empathy. Film as a Uniquely Evocative Medium written by Timothy McGlinchey and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Film Science, grade: 1.0, Queen's University Belfast (School of Creative Arts), course: Film and Visual Studies, language: English, abstract: This project seeks to scrutinise empathy’s role in the film viewing experience with a focus on emotional response, whilst specifically investigating its impact in the context of fiction film. And so raises the primary research question: To what extent, and how, is fictional film capable of eliciting emotion in its audience? An individual’s capacity to not only acknowledge, but rather share and vicariously experience the emotions of another, is a truly remarkable psychological phenomenon. This process of empathy, as it is above defined, is especially intriguing once removed from the context of human interaction, and in fact recognised within the seemingly disconnected dynamic of the fictional film viewing experience. Despite the appearance of what many may consider limitations to empathy in film viewing, such as the audience’s knowledge of the inauthentic, staged nature of the medium, it remains clear that filmic narratives can still be affectively experienced by their viewers.

Literature in Films & Media Studies (English) For B.A. (Sem.-6) According to NEP-2020

Author : R. Bansal
Publisher : SBPD Publishing House
ISBN 13 : 8119142373
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (191 download)

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Book Synopsis Literature in Films & Media Studies (English) For B.A. (Sem.-6) According to NEP-2020 by : R. Bansal

Download or read book Literature in Films & Media Studies (English) For B.A. (Sem.-6) According to NEP-2020 written by R. Bansal and published by SBPD Publishing House. This book was released on 2024-06-28 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: 1. An Explanation of James Monaco, ‘the Language of Film : Sings And Syntax’, In How To Read A Film : The World of Movies, Media And Multimedia 2. William Shakespeare’s : The Comedy of Errors, and Its Adaptation Angoor (1982 Film; Directed By Gulzar) 3. Khushwant Singh’s Train To Pakistan, and Its Adaptation Train To Pakistan (1998 Film; Directed By Pamela Rooks) 4. Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwala and Its Adaptation Kabuliwala (1961 Film;Directed By Hemen Gupta) 5. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, And Its Adaptation Maqbool (2003 Film; Directed By Vishal Bhardwaj) 6. Chetan Bhagat’s The 3 Mistakes of My Life, and Its Adaptation Kai Po Che (2013 Film; Directed By Abhishek Kapoor) 7. Script Writing 8. Dialogue Writing 9. Movie Review 10. Editing 11. Narration. Additional Information: The author of this book is R. Bansal.

Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Patricia Aufderheide
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199720398
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction by : Patricia Aufderheide

Download or read book Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction written by Patricia Aufderheide and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-28 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documentary film can encompass anything from Robert Flaherty's pioneering ethnography Nanook of the North to Michael Moore's anti-Iraq War polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, from Dziga Vertov's artful Soviet propaganda piece Man with a Movie Camera to Luc Jacquet's heart-tugging wildlife epic March of the Penguins. In this concise, crisply written guide, Patricia Aufderheide takes readers along the diverse paths of documentary history and charts the lively, often fierce debates among filmmakers and scholars about the best ways to represent reality and to tell the truths worth telling. Beginning with an overview of the central issues of documentary filmmaking--its definitions and purposes, its forms and founders--Aufderheide focuses on several of its key subgenres, including public affairs films, government propaganda (particularly the works produced during World War II), historical documentaries, and nature films. Her thematic approach allows readers to enter the subject matter through the kinds of films that first attracted them to documentaries, and it permits her to make connections between eras, as well as revealing the ongoing nature of documentary's core controversies involving objectivity, advocacy, and bias. Interwoven throughout are discussions of the ethical and practical considerations that arise with every aspect of documentary production. A particularly useful feature of the book is an appended list of "100 great documentaries" that anyone with a serious interest in the genre should see. Drawing on the author's four decades of experience as a film scholar and critic, this book is the perfect introduction not just for teachers and students but also for all thoughtful filmgoers and for those who aspire to make documentaries themselves. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Planet Earth

Author : Chiara Piroddi
Publisher : White Star Kids
ISBN 13 : 9788854412460
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (124 download)

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Book Synopsis Planet Earth by : Chiara Piroddi

Download or read book Planet Earth written by Chiara Piroddi and published by White Star Kids. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kids can explore Earth's secrets with this guide featuring cool infographics, colorful illustrations, and scientific data. Sixteen different plates illuminate everything from the atmosphere to the ocean depths, icy tundra to hot deserts, and tiny bugs to gigantic elephants. Full color.

Cinematic Histospheres

Author : Rasmus Greiner
Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9783030705893
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (58 download)

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Book Synopsis Cinematic Histospheres by : Rasmus Greiner

Download or read book Cinematic Histospheres written by Rasmus Greiner and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2021-06-19 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this Open Access book, film scholar Rasmus Greiner develops a theoretical model for the concept of the histosphere to refer to the “sphere” of a cinematically modelled, physically experienceable historical world. His analysis of practices of modelling and perceiving, immersion and empathy, experience and remembering, appropriation and refiguration, combine approaches from film studies, such as Vivian Sobchack’s phenomenology of film experience, with historiographic theories, such as Frank R. Ankersmit’s concept of historical experience. Building on this analysis, Greiner examines the spatial and temporal organization of historical films and presents discussions of mood and atmosphere, body and memory, and genre and historical consciousness. The analysis is based around three historical films, spanning six decades, that depict 1950s Germany: Helmut Käutner’s Sky Without Stars (1955), Jutta Brückner’s Years of Hunger (1980), and Sven Bohse’s three-part TV series Ku’damm 56 (2016).

Culture-Bound Syndromes in Popular Culture

Author : Cringuta Irina Pelea
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000982785
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture-Bound Syndromes in Popular Culture by : Cringuta Irina Pelea

Download or read book Culture-Bound Syndromes in Popular Culture written by Cringuta Irina Pelea and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores culture-bound syndromes, defined as a pattern of symptoms (mental, physical, and/or relational) experienced only by members of a specific cultural group and recognized as a disorder by members of those groups, and their coverage in popular culture. Encompassing a wide range of popular culture genres and mediums – from film and TV to literature, graphic novels, and anime – the chapters offer a dynamic mix of approaches to analyze how popular culture has engaged with specific culture-bound syndromes such as hwabyung, hikikomori, taijin kyofusho, zou huo ru mo, sati, amok, Cuban hysteria, voodoo death, and others. Spanning a global and interdisciplinary remit, this first-of-its-kind anthology will allow scholars and students of popular culture, media and film studies, comparative literature, medical humanities, cultural psychiatry, and philosophy to explore simultaneously a diversity of popular cultures and culturally rooted mental health disorders.

Mediating Memory in the Museum

Author : S. Arnold-de-Simine
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137352647
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (373 download)

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Book Synopsis Mediating Memory in the Museum by : S. Arnold-de-Simine

Download or read book Mediating Memory in the Museum written by S. Arnold-de-Simine and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mediating Memory in the Museum is a contribution to an emerging field of research that is situated at the interface between memory studies and museum studies. It highlights the role of museums in the proliferation of the so-called memory boom as well as the influence of memory discourses on international trends in museum cultures.

Film Bulletin

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Film Bulletin by :

Download or read book Film Bulletin written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Interpreting Anime

Author : Christopher Bolton
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452956847
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis Interpreting Anime by : Christopher Bolton

Download or read book Interpreting Anime written by Christopher Bolton and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For students, fans, and scholars alike, this wide-ranging primer on anime employs a panoply of critical approaches Well-known through hit movies like Spirited Away, Akira, and Ghost in the Shell, anime has a long history spanning a wide range of directors, genres, and styles. Christopher Bolton’s Interpreting Anime is a thoughtful, carefully organized introduction to Japanese animation for anyone eager to see why this genre has remained a vital, adaptable art form for decades. Interpreting Anime is easily accessible and structured around individual films and a broad array of critical approaches. Each chapter centers on a different feature-length anime film, juxtaposing it with a particular medium—like literary fiction, classical Japanese theater, and contemporary stage drama—to reveal what is unique about anime’s way of representing the world. This analysis is abetted by a suite of questions provoked by each film, along with Bolton’s incisive responses. Throughout, Interpreting Anime applies multiple frames, such as queer theory, psychoanalysis, and theories of postmodernism, giving readers a thorough understanding of both the cultural underpinnings and critical significance of each film. What emerges from the sweep of Interpreting Anime is Bolton’s original, articulate case for what makes anime unique as a medium: how it at once engages profound social and political realities while also drawing attention to the very challenges of representing reality in animation’s imaginative and compelling visual forms.

The Art of Starving

Author : Sam J. Miller
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062456733
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (624 download)

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Book Synopsis The Art of Starving by : Sam J. Miller

Download or read book The Art of Starving written by Sam J. Miller and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2017 Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book! “Funny, haunting, beautiful, relentless, and powerful, The Art of Starving is a classic in the making.”—Book Riot Matt hasn’t eaten in days. His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal, but Matt won’t give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp—and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he’s going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away. Matt’s hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have . . . powers. The ability to see things he shouldn’t be able to see. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people’s heads. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space. So what is lunch, really, compared to the secrets of the universe? Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq’s life, then use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No problem. But Matt doesn’t realize there are many kinds of hunger…and he isn’t in control of all of them. A darkly funny, moving story of body image, addiction, friendship, and love, Sam J. Miller’s debut novel will resonate with any reader who’s ever craved the power that comes with self-acceptance.

Prosocial Development

Author : Laura M. Padilla-Walker
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0199964777
Total Pages : 498 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis Prosocial Development by : Laura M. Padilla-Walker

Download or read book Prosocial Development written by Laura M. Padilla-Walker and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prosocial behavior-broadly defined as voluntary action intended to help or benefit another-has been associated with positive outcomes across the lifespan. Children with a more prosocial orientation are better liked and trusted by their peers, have a higher status in peer groups, are better at maintaining friendships, demonstrate better self regulation, empathy, and social cognitive skills, and excel in academics. Researchers have shown that prosocial behaviors correlate to lower rates of school suspension and drop-out, teen pregnancy, substance use, aggression, and delinquency. These positive effects speak to the value of prosocial behavior during formative years. Prosocial Development examines a variety of biological, socialization, and contextual influences on prosocial development from infancy through early adulthood. While the definition of prosocial behavior may seem straightforward, recent research has highlighted its multifaceted nature. This volume specifically focuses on the multidimensionality of prosocial development, examining different contexts, motivations, types, and targets of prosocial behavior that are differentially predicted by socialization and dispositional characteristics. Skillfully edited by Drs. Padilla-Walker and Carlo, each chapter in this volume highlights some aspect of multidimensionality in regard to prosocial behavior and meaningful avenues for future research. This volume will be an important tool for scholars, researchers, and practitioners who are interested in prosocial, moral, and positive youth development. The organization and focus of this volume are also well-suited for use as a text for graduate courses in moral development, child and adolescent development, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, and family studies.

Long Way Down

Author : Jason Reynolds
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1481438271
Total Pages : 333 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (814 download)

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Book Synopsis Long Way Down by : Jason Reynolds

Download or read book Long Way Down written by Jason Reynolds and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review) “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator. Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.

Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater

Author : Nina Penner
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253049989
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater by : Nina Penner

Download or read book Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater written by Nina Penner and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater is the first systematic exploration of how sung forms of drama tell stories. Through examples from opera's origins to contemporary musicals, Nina Penner examines the roles of character-narrators and how they differ from those in literary and cinematic works, how music can orient spectators to characters' points of view, how being privy to characters' inner thoughts and feelings may evoke feelings of sympathy or empathy, and how performers' choices affect not only who is telling the story but what story is being told. Unique about Penner's approach is her engagement with current work in analytic philosophy. Her study reveals not only the resources this philosophical tradition can bring to musicology but those which musicology can bring to philosophy, challenging and refining accounts of narrative, point of view, and the work-performance relationship within both disciplines. She also considers practical problems singers and directors confront on a daily basis, such as what to do about Wagner's Jewish caricatures and the racism of Orientalist operas. More generally, Penner reflects on how centuries-old works remain meaningful to contemporary audiences and have the power to attract new, more diverse audiences to opera and musical theater. By exploring how practitioners past and present have addressed these issues, Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater offers suggestions for how opera and musical theater can continue to entertain and enrich the lives of 21st-century audiences.

Expanded Cinema

Author : Gene Youngblood
Publisher : Fordham University Press
ISBN 13 : 0823287432
Total Pages : 485 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

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Book Synopsis Expanded Cinema by : Gene Youngblood

Download or read book Expanded Cinema written by Gene Youngblood and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiftieth anniversary reissue of the founding media studies book that helped establish media art as a cultural category. First published in 1970, Gene Youngblood’s influential Expanded Cinema was the first serious treatment of video, computers, and holography as cinematic technologies. Long considered the bible for media artists, Youngblood’s insider account of 1960s counterculture and the birth of cybernetics remains a mainstay reference in today’s hypermediated digital world. This fiftieth anniversary edition includes a new Introduction by the author that offers conceptual tools for understanding the sociocultural and sociopolitical realities of our present world. A unique eyewitness account of burgeoning experimental film and the birth of video art in the late 1960s, this far- ranging study traces the evolution of cinematic language to the end of fiction, drama, and realism. Vast in scope, its prescient formulations include “the paleocybernetic age,” “intermedia,” the “artist as design scientist,” the “artist as ecologist,” “synaesthetics and kinesthetics,” and “the technosphere: man/machine symbiosis.” Outstanding works are analyzed in detail. Methods of production are meticulously described, including interviews with artists and technologists of the period, such as Nam June Paik, Jordan Belson, Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Carolee Schneemann, Stan VanDerBeek, Les Levine, and Frank Gillette. An inspiring Introduction by the celebrated polymath and designer R. Buckminster Fuller—a perfectly cut gem of countercultural thinking in itself—places Youngblood’s radical observations in comprehensive perspective. Providing an unparalleled historical documentation, Expanded Cinema clarifies a chapter of countercultural history that is still not fully represented in the arthistorical record half a century later. The book will also inspire the current generation of artists working in ever-newer expansions of the cinematic environment and will prove invaluable to all who are concerned with the technologies that are reshaping the nature of human communication.

Post Cinematic Affect

Author : Steven Shaviro
Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1846944317
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (469 download)

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Book Synopsis Post Cinematic Affect by : Steven Shaviro

Download or read book Post Cinematic Affect written by Steven Shaviro and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Post-Cinematic Affect is about what it feels like to live in the affluent West in the early 21st century. Specifically, it explores the structure of feeling that is emerging today in tandem with new digital technologies, together with economic globalization and the financialization of more and more human activities. The 20th century was the age of film and television; these dominant media shaped and reflected our cultural sensibilities. In the 21st century, new digital media help to shape and reflect new forms of sensibility. Movies (moving image and sound works) continue to be made, but they have adopted new formal strategies, they are viewed under massively changed conditions, and they address their spectators in different ways than was the case in the 20th century. The book traces these changes, focusing on four recent moving-image works: Nick Hooker's music video for Grace Jones' song Corporate Cannibal; Olivier Assayas' movie Boarding Gate, starring Asia Argento; Richard Kelly's movie Southland Tales, featuring Justin Timberlake, Dwayne Johnson, and other pop culture celebrities; and Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's Gamer.

Sight and Sound

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 536 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Sight and Sound by :

Download or read book Sight and Sound written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Assassin

Author : Peng Hsiao-yen
Publisher : Hong Kong University Press
ISBN 13 : 9888455699
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (884 download)

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Book Synopsis The Assassin by : Peng Hsiao-yen

Download or read book The Assassin written by Peng Hsiao-yen and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-23 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Assassin tells the story of a swordswoman who refrains from killing. Hou Hsiao-hsien astonishes his audience once again by upsetting almost every convention of the wuxia (martial arts) genre in the film. This collection offers eleven readings, each as original and thought-provoking as the film itself, beginning with one given by the director himself. Contributors analyze the elliptical way of storytelling, Hou’s adaptation of the source text (a tale from the Tang dynasty, also included in this volume), the film’s appropriation of traditional Chinese visual aesthetics, as well as the concept of xia (knight-errant) that is embedded in Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist worldviews. There are also discussions of the much-celebrated sonic design of The Assassin: the nearly exclusive use of a diegetic film score is a statement on the director’s belief in cinematic reality. Underlying all the chapters is a focus on how Hou reinvents Tang-dynasty China in contemporary culture. The meticulously recreated everyday reality of the Tang world in the film highlights the ethnic and cultural diversity of the dynasty. It was a time when Sogdian traders acted as important intermediaries between Central Asia and the Tang court, and as a result Sogdian culture permeated the society. Taking note of the vibrant hybridity of Tang culture in the film, this volume shows that the historical openness to non-Chinese elements is in fact an essential part of the Chineseness expressed in Hou’s work. The Assassin is a gateway to the remote Tang-dynasty world, but in Hou’s hands the concerns of that premodern world turn out to be highly relevant to the world of the audience. “This book promises to be a useful companion to the film The Assassin. Contributors to this collection have convincingly and compellingly elucidated some of the film’s most difficult features. The result is a rich and wide-ranging analysis of one of the most beautiful films of our time.” —Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, The University of Texas at Austin “This collection of essays unfolds the many layers of The Assassin by speaking to its aesthetic achievements, reinvention of genre conventions, deep historical engagement, and philosophical substance. It exceeds the sum of its individual parts by building a vibrant cross-disciplinary conversation among a diverse group of accomplished scholars, who contribute original and compelling insights on the film.” —Jean Ma, Stanford University