Camy Kumar itibaren Optăşani, Romania

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12/24/2024

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Camy Kumar Kitabın yeniden yazılması (11)

2019-05-25 04:41

İmam-ı Azam Savunması - Yaşar Nuri Öztürk TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi

Tarafından yazılmış kitap Tarafından: İnkılap Kitabevi

The work of Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto is a breath of fresh air in a field dominated by traditional schools of criticism. This is not only the best book on Kurosawa; it is the most thought-provoking assessment of the discursive field known as "Japanese Film Studies." In fact, he not only critiques the very notion of such a field; he performs a devastating analysis of the genealogy of criticism that has claimed authority of such a subject since the 1950s. As a Westerner intersted in the subject, this book challenged every assumption I had. Although the book covers every film of Kurosawa's career, this is not a work of 'auteur' criticism. In fact, Yoshimoto addresses the very shortcomings of such an approach in the introduction of his text. As suggested by the book's secondary title, the work tackles something much more broad in scope and does so more critically than any other work related to the films of Kurosawa. First and foremost, what sets this work apart from most studies of either Kurosawa or more generally Japanese cinema (that are published in English) is Yoshimoto's close and careful attention to history. Not only does he 'historicize' both Kurosawa-as-author and his catalogue of films but he also does the same to the recent tradition of criticism on Japanese cinema that has become so popular in Western academia. He convincingly critiques the previous work of Donald Richie, Noel Burch, Stephen Prince (and more briefly David Desser and James Goodwin), and his analysis of Western criticism on Japan as falling into 3 phases (humanist - formalist/marxist - 'cross-cultural') is most helpful. When I suggest that he 'historicizes' these three methods of critique, I mean he demonstrates how these approaches perhaps worked not to better illuminate the objects 'Kurosawa' and 'Japanese cinema' but to 'naturalize' or legitimate other historical developments 'outside' the intended object of scrutiny. For instance, Yoshimoto argues that humanist and auteur forms of criticism (that were popular in the 1960s) when applied to Kurosawa's films did less to interpret the films-themselves and instead worked to legitimate the contemporaneous formation of 'film studies' as a proper field of scholarship. He goes on to critique the other phases of critical approach in a similar fashion. Yoshimoto also performs historical critiques of other interpretive frameworks that are often assumed to make sense of Japanese film production. He puts into question the category 'samurai film' as assumed by critics like David Desser by demonstrating its 'orientalist' function in recent 'cross-cultural' discourse. He challenges careless appeals to 'zen' that do less to make sense of films and more to 'essentialize' certain contingent aspects of Japanese culture. Also, he reads the typical grouping of Japanese film into two genres, 'jidaigeki' and 'gendaigeki', in the context of current historical struggles by showing this division to function as a kind of effacement of certain contradictions and invasions that took place in recent global events. These are only some of the enlightening points made throughout this book - mainly the ones that really stuck with me. As stated before, this book is more than an investigation of Kurosawa - this is a convincing challenge to the practice of 'Japanese film studies' as a discipline. However, in relation to Kurosawa, the highlites (in my opinion) are his readings of 'Stray Dog', 'Seven Samurai', 'Throne of Blood', and 'High and Low'. Personally, I wish there was more on both 'Rashomon' and 'Yojimbo' - but that, in no way, alters my high opinion of this work. By far, this is the best work on Japanese film I have ever read. His writing is clear - his arguments are convincing, and his ideas are original. This is a 5 star work of scholarship. Also, I recommend reading his article "The Difficulty of Being Radical: The Discipline of Film Studies and the Postcolonial World Order" in 'boundary 2' (Autumn 1991).

Okuyucu Camy Kumar itibaren Optăşani, Romania

Kullanıcı, bu kitapları portalın yayın kurulu olan 2017-2018'de en ilginç olarak değerlendirdi "TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi" Tüm okuyucuların bu literatürü tanımalarını tavsiye eder.