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Film, Negation and Freedom
Capitalism and Romantic Critique
by Will Kitchen
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Book Presentation:
Film, Negation and Freedom: Capitalism and Romantic Critique explores cinema in relation to the critical tradition in modern philosophy and its heritage in Romantic aesthetics.
Synthesising a variety of discursive fields and traditions - including Early German Romanticism, Frankfurt School critical theory and the aesthetic philosophy of Jacques Rancière - Film, Negation and Freedom outlines a radical new approach to film by re-examining the work of Arthur Penn and Lindsay Anderson. A distinction between Light and Dark Romanticism is introduced as a means of interpreting cinema's relationship with capitalism, as well as dualistic concepts such as stillness and motion, passivity and activity, pain and pleasure. Film, Negation and Freedom revitalises our understanding of modern audio-visual media, as well as the aesthetic, philosophical and political conditions of Romantic subjectivity, artistic practice and spectatorship.
About the Author:
Will Kitchen was Teaching Fellow in Film Studies at the University of Southampton, UK. He is the author of Romanticism and Film: Franz Liszt and Audio-Visual Explanation (2020), also published by Bloomsbury Academic.
Press Reviews:
"Art and humanity, rebellion and justice. Film, Negation and Freedom takes these most fundamental of Romantic concerns and uses them to reinvigorate the intellectual underpinnings of film study. In his elucidation of Romanticism in terms of Dark and Light, Will Kitchen provokes a re-examination of the very nature of cinema, as well as of modern intellectual history, through extended discussion of two of its most unique practitioners." ―Louis Bayman, Associate Professor of Film Studies, University of Southampton, UK
"This is a highly theoretically informed, clever and insightful study of the cinema of Briton Lindsay Anderson and American Arthur Penn, two of the most important filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. Kitchen certainly adds to our appreciation of them, and teaches us new dimensions of some brilliant and truly unforgettable films." ―Erik Hedling, Professor Emeritus of Film Studies, Lund University, Sweden
"Marshaling Brecht and the Frankfurt School to bring forward the political virtue of satire and allegory in the twin legacy of "light" (Dionysian) and "dark" (Apollonian) Romanticism, Kitchen discerns the countercultural underside of four features - Mickey One (1965), O Lucky Man (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976), Britannia Hospital (1982) - Lindsay Anderson and Arthur Penn directed in the aftermath of the studio era. Compelling and informative, rich in erudition, aligning Morse Peckham on contemporary Romanticism with Adorno's negative dialectics and Jacques Rancière on dissensus, Film, Negation, and Freedom, tells us how and why these films of years past are vital to critical theory and practice today." ―Tom Conley, Abbot Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, USA
"Ambiguity and complexity are the foundation for thinking about freedom and Will Kitchen's book provides a clear engagement with these ideas through romanticism and cinema. Kitchen argues that negation in a romantic sense means a freedom from totalising systems of thought that can work to bring about a new political understanding of cinema. Focusing on detailed discussions of films directed by Arthur Penn and Lindsay Anderson, Kitchen shows that their failures are in fact romantic successes. This book demonstrates a new way of thinking about the political ramifications of romanticism and the way in which cinema can be a model for freedom and resistance beyond political dogmatism." ―David Sorfa, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK
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