>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.