Introduction: a peripheral view of world cinemas

Iordanova, D., Martin-Jones, D. and Vidal, B. (2010) Introduction: a peripheral view of world cinemas. In: Iordanova, D., Martin-Jones, D. and Vidal, B. (eds.) Cinema at the Periphery. Series: Contemporary approaches to film and media. Wayne State University Press: Detroit, MI, USA, pp. 1-22. ISBN 9780814333884

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Publisher's URL: http://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/cinema-periphery

Abstract

<p>The recent wave of uncovering the multiple, previously hidden facets of diverse forms of cinematic creation has been called many things in film studies. Accented, interstitial, intercultural, underground, or minor cinemas are just some of the terms used by various authors to advocate the mounting urge to conceptualize cultural production that takes into consideration the global interchange of players, be they big or small, prevailing or frail.</p> <p>At the onset of this movement, there was Unthinking Eurocentrism (1994). The groundbreaking work by Ella Shohat and Robert Stam questioned the implicit positioning of Euro-centrism as a limiting straitjacket passing for a commonsensical norm used to assess every kind of creativity by implicitly measuring up to its own standard. Shohat and Stam appealed for the mobilization of “multicultural media studies,” a field that “has been gaining momentum but has been barely named.” Their supple interdisciplinary approach allowed for the exploration of multiple interacting cultural peripheries, subsuming the much-maligned “institutional multiculturalism” in favor of transnationalism and postcolonialism. Their edited collection Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media (2003) thus outspokenly aimed to overcoming the “neat binarism” that “ironically repositions whiteness and Westernness as normative interlocutors.” This work puts forward the relations among various peripherally positioned film traditions that were not necessarily correlated to a tacit Western norm, but asked to be assessed on their own terms.</p> <p>Our present volume builds upon this work. Like Shohat and Stam, we want to see the entrenched binarism that pits “a rotating chain of marginalized communities against an unstated white norm”4 challenged and redrawn in favor of scholarship that unveils and acknowledges a vibrant multitude of creative voices and forms of expression that originate and dwell beyond and outside the commonly celebrated cultural hubs.</p>

Item Type:Book Sections
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Martin-Jones, Professor David
Authors: Iordanova, D., Martin-Jones, D., and Vidal, B.
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
Publisher:Wayne State University Press
ISBN:9780814333884

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