Studying Historical Represenatation in the cinema: tools and concepts


Ελευθερία Θανούλη
Abstract

The study of historical representation in the cinema has engaged a significant number of researchers both in the field of historical studies and that of film theory. Although the number of historical films is constantly increasing, while also expanding the influence of cinema on the formation of collective memory, the tools for understanding audiovisual history remain limited. In this essay, I will try to fill this gap by summarizing a part of my own thesis, as I presented it in the book History and Film: A Tale of Two Disciplines (2018). In particular, I will focus on the intermittent dialogue between historians and film theorists, highlighting the main issues that stood in the way of the substantial convergence of the two fields. Next, I will attempt to pair them, combining the poetics of history from Hayden White’s work with the historical poetics of David Bordwell.

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Author Biography
Ελευθερία Θανούλη

Η Ελευθερία Θανούλη είναι Καθηγήτρια στη Θεωρία Κινηματογράφου. Τα ερευνητικά της ενδιαφέροντα περιλαμβάνουν την αναπαράσταση της ιστορίας στον κινηματογράφο, την αφηγηματολογία, τον ψηφιακό κινηματογράφο, τον κινηματογράφο και την πολιτική, και τον παγκόσμιο κινηματογράφο. Είναι συγγραφέας τριών μονογραφιών: Postclassical Cinema: an International Poetics of Film Narration (London: Wallflower Press, 2009), Wag the Dog: a Study on Film and Reality in the Digital Age (Νέα Υόρκη: Bloomsbury, 2013) και History and Film: A Tale of Two Disciplines (New York: Bloomsbury, 2018). Έχει, επίσης, συνεισφέρει κεφάλαια σε σημαντικές εκδόσεις, όπως The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory (London: Routledge, 2013), The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013) και The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Politics (New York: Routledge, 2016). Το διάστημα αυτό ετοιμάζει ένα νέο βιβλίο με τίτλο A Guide to Post-classical Narration: from the margins to the center (New York: Bloomsbury).

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