Book Description
Slavoj Zizek, a leading intellectual in the new social movements in Eastern Europe, provides a virtuoso reading of the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan through the works of contemporary popular culture, from horror fiction and detective thrillers to popular romances and Hitchcock films.
Slavoj Zizek is a Researcher in the Institute of Sociology at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He ran as a proreform candidate for the presidency of the republic of Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia, in 1990.
Customer Reviews:
Lacanian heresy inside! Beware of being tainted!.......2004-10-05
I am struck by the negative reviews that caution readers: "Zizek is not an orthodox Lacanian! Read him only if you have already understood Lacan!" This is, of course, the typically cultish--really Catholic--approach to Lacan that treats him as a holy text, pre-supposes a series of high priests who have been properly anoited and through whom one must receive the officially sanctioned interpretation. I don't read Zizek for Lacan--I read him for Zizek, and I encourage others to do likewise. *Looking Awry* and *Enjoy Your Symptom* are prehaps the easiest approaches to Zizek and his brand of cultural criticism, as they rely almost entirely on popular culture, especially film. Zizek's perverse (and often dirty) sense of humor and tendency to read against the grain at all costs are apparent on nearly every page, which makes this a very engaging read, indeed. Intellectually, there are some problems with his approach, of course--but Zizek's voice is such a refreshing change of pace, and his constant turn to a reading that you thought was impossible (but turns out to be preversely appealing) makes them all worthwhile.
Perfect - if that's what you want........2004-05-15
That's what I wanted, at least: An illustration of the key Lacanian concepts. What Zizek'bokk gives you, in fact, is the key to reading Lacan.
Lacan's seminar is an unreadable text - if that's your first/second/third etc. time. Lacan, you see, does not make conclusions. To illustrate that:
- You are writing a paper on, let's say, "Gaze". You would like to know what's Lacan's take on gaze. You open "On Gaze as Object a" chapter from "Four Fundamentals".
- you read a paragraph. You do not quite understand what you have read.
- you read the following paragraph. Now, understanding this one is even more difficult, because Lacan is assuming that you have fully understood the previous one. Ok, third paragragh ... Should I continue?
- You either think that this book is non-sense or that you are stupid. Both conclusions are wrong.
As soon as you get the background - Lacan's non-sense makes perfect sense. Zizek give this background in a highly entertaining manner (his writing is a jewel - keeps you thinking "If only I could write like that!"). I am currently doing a PhD in literature, and I have to go through plenty of academic rubbish - dry and actually, useless critical books, that make use of Lacan, Foucault and others to get published and never be read. Zizec is a breath of fresh air.
Please believe me - do not give up on Lacan, do not call him bad names, (like "idiotic nonsense, nobody ever understood him, they were all pretending to understand him because they were afraid to look stupid in the 60s") - before you read Zizec.
This book is great; those below who don't like it are clowns.......2002-09-22
Jacques Lacan's theories are completely, utterly undecipherable. The only way to begin to understand the fundamentals of psychoanalytic theory is to read somebody else writing on Lacan. And thank God Zizek does that for us. To understand Lacan, I've always had to turn to film theory critism--Laura Mulvey--but none of that ever goes beyond theories of the gaze, neglecting to dispell the mystery around some of the most basic concepts of Lacan. Zizek rolls through these various terms and ideas, always providing an exemplification of the idea in popular culture, usually in Hitchcock or within Sci-Fi genres, and then a clear-to-understand definition. So if you're confused as to what desire, drive, lack, objet a, other, Other, the Real, or the Thing are in terms of Lacanian jargon, this might be your book.
Titling awry.......2001-07-08
This book is very interesting but I think it would have been better to call it "An Introduction to Popular Culture trhough Jaques Lacan". This would be a proper title because Zizek dedicates more space to tell us what some products of popular culture are about (i.e. Stephen King's novel "Pet Sematary"; Robert Sheckley's short story "The Store of the Worlds") than to explain, or even outline, the theories of Jaques Lacan. This in itself is not a critique, I just want to say that the title can be misleading. You will not find here an explanation or an introduction to Lacan, but rather a Lacanian reading or interpretation of some products of popular culture (novels, short stories and films.) If you are looking for an easy or brief rendering of Lacan, this book will not be of much help. Moreover, I would say that the readers who will profit the most are those who are already familiar with, or at least know something about, Lacanian thought. This said, I think that Zizek's Lacanian reading of popular works is very good in some cases, and somewhat poor in others. For example, he recalls the novel "Pet Sematary" but he explains almost nothing about it. The good cases, however, make it worth the effort to read the book (Zizek's writing is complicated, but so is Lacan's), and even if you do not agree with some of his points, they are still useful to encourage thought and discussion. If you are interested in the study of popular culture, the interpretation of film and literature, or in the application of Lacanian theory to social analysis, this book will certainly be of use.
Looking Awry This Book.......2000-06-01
This book consists of three parts each of which treats so wide range of topics that there seems to be no logical consistency except Lacanian theory. In the first part, Zizek applys Lacanian theory on reality to various topics such as Zenofs paradox, Shakespearefs gHamleth, Stephen Kingfs gPet Semataryh, and Steven Spielbergfs gEmpire of the Sunh. Then, the second part focuses on Hitchcockfs works and the third part discusses gFantasy, Bureaucracy, Democracyh, however, both parts treat various works in popular culture, too. Actually, Zizek treats Lacanian theory on reality in the first part, on psychoanalysis in the second part, and on gthe Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Realh in the third part, and the third part arranges the preceding parts. But I feel that this book is about how to analyze popular culture rather than about Lacan. As an introduction to Jacques Lacan, I think this book is too difficult. However, this bookfs style which does not have a logical consistency like an ordinary thesis might be more easy to know Lacanian theory than compactly explaining book with many diagrams.
Average customer rating:
- An Engaging Intro to "Film and Literature"
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Film and Literature: An Introduction and Reader
Timothy Corrigan
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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A Short Guide to Writing about Film (Short Guides Series)
ASIN: 0135265428 |
Book Description
This book is a wide-ranging introduction to the long history and provocative debates about the interactions between film and literature.
KEY TOPICS: Film and Literature: A Reader presents essays from a variety of cultures that address the major issues in the exchange between film and literature since the beginning of the twentieth century. The book provides landmark discussions of different genres and practices (such as poetry and movies or film scripts as literature) through writings by such figures as Vachel Lindsay, Walter Benjamin, and Alexander Astruc. It presents a concise, but detailed history of film and literature and the critical terms and techniques used in film and literary analysis as well as a detailed history of the bond between film and literature, from theatrical narratives of the silent film era to recent blockbuster adaptations of Shakespeare and Jane Austen. It also features introductions to each essay and suggests how the essays may be used to analyze works involving film and literature. An essential resource for every reader interested in film.
Customer Reviews:
An Engaging Intro to "Film and Literature".......2007-09-20
In the preface to his book FILM AND LITERATURE, Timothy Corrigan notes the "enormous scope" of the topic. Wisely, he subtitles the book "An Introduction and Reader."
Part I, "Film and Literature in the Crosscurrents of History," comprises eight brief and lively chapters, beginning with the silent era of theatrical depictions to the adaptations of novels. Among the problematic adaptations dicussed are The Grapes of Wrath, The Shining, and Lolita.
Part II, "Critical Borders and Boundaries: Analytical Categories for Film and Literature" introduces basic concepts in Film and Literary Studies.
Part III, "Major Documents and Debates," more than two-thirds of the book, is an anthology of essays on cinema excerpted from the writings of influential scholars such as Walter Benjamin, Sergei Eisenstein, Andre Bazin, George Bluestone, and Kristin Thompson.
The book makes very engaging reading.
-- C J Singh
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Narrative in Fiction and Film: An Introduction
Jakob Lothe
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Book Description
Narrative in Fiction and Film gives a clear presentation of key concepts of narrative theory. A growing field in the humanities, narrative theory (or 'narratology') studies such narratives, thus discussing central questions concerning human communication. This introductory book has a two-part structure: Part I presents key concepts of narrative theory - for example, author, narrator, time, perspective, event, characterization. The discussion is oriented towards narrative fiction and centred on literary texts, yet since film can also have an important narrative dimension, the film aspect is brought into each chapter. Part II analyses five prose texts: the parable of the sower in St. Mark's Gospel, Franz Kafka's The Trial, James Joyce's 'The Dead', Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Part II also discusses film versions of four of these texts: Orson Welles's The Trial, John Huston's The Dead, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and Colin Gregg's To the Lighthouse. The book brings together and lucidly presents concepts and theories in narrative theory, and illustrates and tests theses theories. It will be an invaluable text for undergraduates studying narrative theory as part of a literature or film studies course.
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`It wasn't as good as the book' - this is the response to many a film adaptation, and even the starting point of many film reviews. Novel to Film is the first sytematic theoretical account of the process by which the great (and not so great) works of literature are transformed into the good, bad (sometimes ugly) but always distinctive medium of cinema. Drawing upon recent relevant literary and film theory, the book provides careful analysis of the theory and practice of metamorphosis. The Scarlet Letter, Random Harvest, Great Expectations, Daisy Miller and Cape Fear provide case studies which represent a range of fiction and cinematic practice.
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Comedy: An Introduction to Comedy in Literature, Drama, and Cinema (Opus Books)
T.G.A. Nelson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0192892207 |
Book Description
From Plautus, Cervantes, and Charles Dickens to Evelyn Waugh, Joseph Heller, and Tom Stoppard, from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Arsenic and Old Lace and Woody Allen, this concise and readable book provides a thorough introduction to comic criticism. Nelson argues that there are significant
recurring patterns of comedy, both in the classics and in more popular and commercial works. He discusses such themes as the link between comedy and carnival, the apparent obsession of modern writers with linguistic comedy, and the dilemma of feminists faced with traditional comedy that is largely
sexist in nature.
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Film & literature, an introduction
Morris Beja
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Film as Literature, Literature as Film: An Introduction to and Bibliography of Film's Relationship to Literature (Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature)
Harris Ross
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
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ASIN: 0313245959 |
Book Description
This work discusses the relationship between film and literature, explaining and evaluating the issues most frequently raised on the subject. It also lists nearly 2,500 articles and books published from 1908 to 1985 on the comparison of film to drama, fiction, and poetry. These comparisons arose shortly after the first appearance of moving pictures as writers attempted to establish the differences between movies and drama. The study has since grown into a significant scholarly concern.
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An Introduction to the Works of Peter Weiss (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture)
Olaf Berwald
Manufacturer: Camden House
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ASIN: 1571132325 |
Book Description
The plays and prose works of the German writer, director, and political activist Peter Weiss (1916-1982) were immensely influential in the shaping of European Modernism in the second half of the twentieth century. Combining exploratory aesthetic openness with an uncompromising ethical drive, Weiss's literary works, especially the plays Marat/Sade (1964), The Investigation (1968), and Hölderlin (1971), as well as the novel The Aesthetics of Resistance (1975-81) continue to provide vital points of reference for any discussion of culture and politics in our times. Berwald's study serves as a comprehensive introduction to Weiss's work and vision. The introductory chapter outlines Weiss's life and work in exile. Three chapters provide detailed discussions of Weiss's theater work, from his early grotesque plays and the documentary dramas from the 1960s that address Auschwitz, Angola, and Vietnam, to his most complex plays in which intellectuals are staged as outsiders. The subsequent four chapters discuss Weiss's prose works, which include his autobiographical novels from the early 1960s, essays and notebooks on art and politics, and his summum opus, The Aesthetics of Resistance.Olaf Berwald is Assistant Professor of German at the University of Tennessee.
Customer Reviews:
We shall not cease from exploring.......2006-06-12
We shall not cease from exploring, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot-
We can now have voice over narration with movies that make DVD's well worth buying and we can enjoy the mover more after seeing what the artist or writer or director was trying to accomplish. I my self need someone to tell me when my show is untied.
You may notice a few drawbacks to the DVD extra rout that this book addresses. First even if the media lasted for ever the DVD will become unreadable with newer technology. Unless you have a portable device about the size of a book a DVD can be clumsy to carry around. People that are book oriented can get more pleasure from this medium.
The book its self is conveniently divided into logical sections as:
Introduction
Synopsis
The screenplay
The cast
The film
The shoot
All the movements and dialog are clearly written. There are plenty of color pictures as visual aids. After enjoying the different view both Shakespeare and the movie, this book makes a great conversation item.
For the fan of Branagh or the movie.......2002-10-03
The book to accompany the movie. There's nothing new here, really, although one can take the screenplay and check it against the play to find out the changes that were made to the text.
Branagh says in the foreword that having the American actors was his idea. Perhaps. I had heard a rumor that he had included them for a wider U.S. distribution. In any case, it's worth noting that the Americans, with the possible exception of Denzel Washington, just can't hold a candle to even the meanest bit parts played by the British. I still think Keaton was way too "Beetlejuice" for Dogberry, although the explanation for his interpretation herein gave me new insight into it. If you're a Branagh admirer as I am, you shouldn't pass this book up.
MUST HAVE for Kenneth Branagh fans!.......2000-09-20
I just can't say enough good things about this book. The pictures are fabulous--I'd pay the price of the book for them alone! And for those curious about stage production and screenplays, this book is a MUST HAVE! Much Ado is definitely my favorite play by Shakespeare. Kenneth Branagh's movie version is the most fun version of Much Ado I've ever seen, and this book captures Branagh's magic. You will not be disappointed!
Another superb Branagh.......1998-10-30
This film is Branagh's best ever. Easy to follow with excellent acting. Great casting of both English and American actors.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from West Virginia University Philological Papers, published by West Virginia University, Department of Foreign Languages on September 22, 2001. The length of the article is 430 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Female Gaze in Literature and Film. (Introduction).
Publication:
West Virginia University Philological Papers (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2001
Publisher: West Virginia University, Department of Foreign Languages
Page: v(1)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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