In this Book
University of California Press
- Siegfried Kracauer's American Writings: Essays on Film and Popular Culture
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: University of California Press
- Series: Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism
summary
Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966), friend and colleague of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, was one of the most influential film critics of the mid-twentieth century. In this book, Johannes von Moltke and Kristy Rawson have, for the first time assembled essays in cultural criticism, film, literature, and media theory that Kracauer wrote during the quarter century he spent in America after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. In the decades following his arrival in the United States, Kracauer commented on developments in American and European cinema, wrote on film noir and neorealism, examined unsettling political trends in mainstream cinema, and reviewed the contemporary experiments of avant-garde filmmakers. As a cultural critic, he also ranged far beyond cinema, intervening in debates regarding Jewish culture, unraveling national and racial stereotypes, and reflecting on the state of arts and humanities in the 1950s. These essays, together with the editors' introductions and an afterward by Martin Jay offer illuminating insights into the films and culture of the postwar years and provide a unique perspective on this eminent émigré intellectual.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- Preface: Notes on This Edition
- pp. ix-x
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xii
- INTRODUCTION: AFFINITIES
- pp. 1-26
- 1. Why France Liked Our Films (1942)
- pp. 33-40
- 2. Hollywood's Terror Films (1946)
- pp. 41-47
- 3. Jean Vigo (1947)
- pp. 47-51
- 5. On Jewish Culture (1947)
- pp. 54-56
- 6. Filming the Subconscious (1948)
- pp. 57-62
- 10. The Mirror Up to Nature (1949)
- pp. 105-108
- 12. Art Today (1961)
- pp. 115-117
- 13. About the State of the Humanities
- pp. 117-123
- 14. A Statement on the Humanistic Approach
- pp. 124-127
- 15. Talk with Teddie (1960)
- pp. 127-132
- PART II. FI LM REVIEWS
- pp. 133-136
- 16. An American Experiment (1941)
- pp. 137-138
- 17. Dumbo ( 1941)
- pp. 139-148
- 22. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
- pp. 146-150
- 23. Paisan (1948)
- pp. 150-156
- 24. The Decent German (1949)
- pp. 157-161
- 25. The Eternal Jew (1956)
- pp. 162-165
- 26. A Few Notes on The Connection (1961)
- pp. 165-166
- PART III. BOOK REVIEWS
- pp. 167-182
- 27. In Eisenstein's Workshop (1943)
- pp. 171-173
- 28. The Russian Director (1949)
- pp. 173-176
- 29. The Movie Colony (1942)
- pp. 176-178
- 30. A Lady of Valor (1947)
- pp. 178-181
- 31. The Teutonic Mind (1948)
- pp. 181-183
- 33. Indologian Holiday (1948)
- pp. 185-187
- 34. Portrait in Film (1948)
- pp. 188-190
- 35. Total Teaching (1949)
- pp. 190-192
- 36. Pictorial Deluge (1950)
- pp. 192-195
- 37. Movie Mirror (1950)
- pp. 195-196
- 38. Réflexion faite (1952)
- pp. 197-198
- PART IV. TOWARD A THEORY OF FILM
- pp. 199-200
- 39. Stage vs. Screen Acting (1950)
- pp. 201-204
- 40. The Photographic Approach (1951)
- pp. 204-213
- 41. Silent Film Comedy (1951)
- pp. 213-217
- 42. The Found Story and the Episode (1956)
- pp. 217-226
- AFTERWORD: KRACAUER, THE MAGICAL NOMINALIST
- pp. 227-236
Additional Information
ISBN
9780520952003
Related ISBN(s)
9780520271821
MARC Record
OCLC
966875579
Pages
304
Launched on MUSE
2017-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No