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:
Times_New_RomanStam, 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.