>I'm thinking about starting a new paper concerned with refiguring cinema's >history as a history of grounds, or backgrounds (as opposed to figures, or >foregrounds). The figure-ground relationship implied by any notion of >mise-en-scene may be reversed. So this is like subversive reading >of cinema, I suppose. What do people think? An avante-garde sort of >criticism? Might not be publishable >immediately, but it could be fun. Thoughts? Has it been done (if so >refferences please). Oh yes, it has been done before. Most importantly, the relationship foreground-background is racialized. Read the brilliant essay: Stam, Robert, and Louise Spence. "Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction." Movies and Methods. Vol. II. Ed. Bill Nichols. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985. 632-649. >Oh, and if you like the idea and decide to steal it from me, kindly cite me >in some footnote. That's sweet. >Evan Rosenfield >GMU Gloria Monti ______________________________ gloria monti special assistant professor department of audio/video/film 318 dempster hall 111 hofstra university hempstead, NY 11549-1110 voice mail: 516-463-6463 e-mail: [log in to unmask] http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~godard/index.html 3/29/1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.