Cinema, Culture and the Social Formation: Ideology and Critical Practice

Abstract

168 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984.This study analyses the terms of the Culturalist/Structuralist debate within the cultural approach to the study of communication. It particular focus is the relationship between epistemological first principles and conceptions of ideology, and on the interpretive practices that arise out of that relationship. The first principles of the Culturalist approach are discussed in relationship to the work of Raymond Williams. The approach is further analysed in its development at the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. The Structuralist approach is traced, in cinema studies, to the work of Christian Metz, and to its elaboration in the project of the journal Screen. The Culturalist Approach is seen as operating with a sociological focus; conceptualizing ideology in terms of the reproduction of the social formation. The Structuralist Approach is seen as operating with an epistemological focus; conceptualizing ideology in terms of the production of the human subject. On the basis of this analysis, the study elaborates a model of strategic epistemology, allowing redefined conception of ideology critique that builds from the contradictions of the Culturalist/Structuralist split. The study concludes by putting forward the concept of discursive register to account for the ideological connections between elaborated discursive formations and grounded cultural forms.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD