Theorising National Cinema

Description:
Why do we think of clusters of films as a 'national cinema'? Why has the relationship between the nation and film become so widely and uncritically accepted? Written by many leading scholars in the field, 'Theorizing National Cinema' is a major contribution to work on national cinemas. It addresses the knotty and complex relationship between cinema and national identity, showing that the nationality of a cinema production company, and of the films it made, have not always been seen as pertinent. The volume reviews and rethinks the concept of national cinema in an age of globalization, and goes on to chart the parallel developments of national film industries and the idea of the nation state in countries as diverse as Japan, South Korea, Russia, France, and Italy.The issue of a 'national cinema' for nation states of contested status, with disputed borders or displaced peoples, is discussed in relation to filmmaking in Taiwan, Ireland, and Palestine. The contributors also consider the future of national cinema in an age of transnational cultural flows, exploring issues of national identity and cinema in Latin America, Asia, the Middle-East, India, Africa and Europe. 'Theorizing National Cinema' also includes a valuable bibliography of works on national cinema.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Valentina Vitali / Paul Willemen PART I: THEORIES History, Textuality, Nation: Kracauer, Burch, and Some Problems in the Study of National Cinema--Phil Rosen The National Revisited--Paul Willemen Reconceptualizing National Cinema/s--Stephen Crofts PART II: HISTORIES Italian Cinema and History--Maria Wyke Russia: The Cinema of Anti-Modernity and Backward Progress --Mikhail Iampolski National Cinema in Ireland--Martin McLoone British Cinema as National Cinema--John Hill Ozu and the Nation--Kathe Geist The Break-up of the National Body: the Films of Takashi--MiikeMika Ko Taiwan New Cinema, or a Global Nativism?--Kuan-Hsing Chen From National Cinema to Cinema and the National: Chinese-Language Cinema and Hou Hsiao Hsien's 'Taiwan Trilogy'--Chris Berry 'We're in the Money!': A Brief History of Market Power and Risk-Aversion in the American Film Industry from the Edison Trust to the Rise of Transnational Media Conglomerates-- David A. Cook National and Post-National French Cinema--Martine Danan From Cine-mania to Blockbusters and Trans-Cinema: Reflections on Recent South Korean Cinema--Soyoung Kim The Hidden Conscience of Estimated Palestine--Elia Suleiman PART III: CROSSROADS Early Cinema and Modernity in Latin America--Ana M. Lopez The Quest for / Obsession with / the National in Arabic Cinema--Sabry Hafez National/International/Transnational: The Concept of Trans-Asian Cinema and the Cultural Politics of Film Criticism--Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto Not a Biography of the 'Indian Cinema': Historiography and the Question of National Cinema in India--Valentina Vitali On the National in African Cinema/s: a Conversation--John Akomfrah Spaces of Identity: Communication Technologies and the Reconfiguration of Europe--David Morley / Kevin Robins Bibliographic Resource Paul Willemen / Valentina Vitali

Author Biography:
Valentina Vitali is Lecturer in Comparative Film and Media Studies and Paul Willemen is Professor of Film Studies at University of Ulster, Coleraine.