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Book Cover
Book
Author Denzin, Norman K.

Title Images of postmodern society : social theory and contemporary cinema / Norman K. Denzin
Published London : Sage, 1991

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  791.43655 Den/Iop  AVAILABLE
 MELB  791.43655 DEN-I  AVAILABLE
 W'BOOL  791.43655 Den/Iop  AVAILABLE
Description xii, 179 pages ; 24 cm
Series Theory, culture & society
Theory, culture & society (Unnumbered)
Contents pt. 1. The Postmodern Defining the postmodern terrain -- Postmodern social theory -- Takes on the postmodern : Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Jameson -- Learning from Mills -- pt. 2. Learning from cinema Wild about Lynch : beyond Blue velvet -- Nouveau capitalists on Wall Street -- Crimes and misdemeanors in Manhattan -- The postmodern sexual order : sex, lies, and yuppie love -- Do the right thing : race in the USA -- Paris, Texas : Mills and Baudrillard in America -- In conclusion The eye of the postmodern
Summary "The idea of postmodernism poses a fundamental challenge to established modes of understanding society. Postmodern theory represents individuals in the contemporary world as voyeurs adrift in a sea of symbols, knowing and seeing themselves through mediated images from cinema and television." "In this book Norman Denzin uses a series of studies of contemporary mainstream Hollywood movies to explore the tension between ideas of the postmodern, and traditional ways of analysing society. The discussion moves between two forms of text: social theory, and cinematic representations of contemporary life. Denzin analyses the ideas of society embedded in post-structuralism, postmodernism, feminism, cultural studies and marxism through the ideas of key theorists (Mills, Baudrillard, Barthes, Habermas, Jameson, Bourdieu, Derrida and others). He relates these ideas to the problematic of the postmodern self as exposed in cinema -- Blue Velvet; Wall Street; Crimes and Misdemeanors; When Harry Met Sally; sex, lies and videotape; Do the Right Thing -- centering on the decisive performances of race, gender and class." "Images of Postmodern Society moves beyond a simply theoretical analysis of postmodernism to show how it relates to a series of key texts in contemporary life. In doing so, it demonstrates the challenge of postmodernism to classical sociological ways of representing and writing about the dramaturgical, cinematic society. The insights of this approach will appeal to students and researchers not only in sociology and cultural studies but also in philosophy, film theory and across the social sciences and humanities. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET
Analysis Film theory and criticism
Sociology
Notes Includes index
Bibliography Bibliography: pages 158-174
Includes index
Subject Films and filming -- Plots, themes, etc -- Social problems
Films and filming -- Social aspects
Motion pictures -- Social aspects -- United States.
Motion pictures -- Social aspects.
Motion pictures -- Sociological aspects.
Postmodernism -- Social aspects.
Postmodernism.
Sociology -- Philosophy.
Sociology.
LC no. 91053213
ISBN 0803985150 (cased)
0803985169 (paperback)