Overview

In A Guide to Post-classical Narration, Eleftheria Thanouli expands and substantially develops the innovative theoretical work of her previous publication, Post-classical Cinema: an International Poetics of Film Narration (2009). A Guide to Post-classical Narration: The Future of Film Storytelling presents a concise and comprehensive overview of the creative norms of the post-classical mode of narration. With dozens of cases studies and hundreds of color stills from films across the globe, this book provides the definitive account of post-classical storytelling and its techniques. After surfacing in auteur films in varied production milieus in the 1990s, the post-classical options continued to gain ground throughout the 2000s and 2010s, gradually fertilizing several mainstream productions in Hollywood. From Lars von Trier’s Europa (1991) to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead (2021) and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (2022), the post-classical narration has shown not only impressive resilience but also tremendous creativity in transforming its key formal principles, such as fragmented and multi-thread plotlines, hypermediated realism, parody, graphic frame construction, complex chronology, and intense self-consciousness. Through the meticulous textual analysis of the post-classical works, Eleftheria Thanouli addresses head-on a series of methodological questions in narrative research and brings the tradition of historical poetics back into the limelight. By reinforcing her previous work with numerous new films as well as more nuanced narrative terms and concepts, she not only strengthens her position on post-classical cinema but also establishes the relevance of formalist analysis in the study of film today.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr. Eleftheria Thanouli (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic USA
ISBN:  

9781501393075

ISBN 10:   1501393073
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   14 December 2023
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Preface Introduction 1. Post-classical narrative logic 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Post-classical compositional motivation 1.3. Post-classical realistic motivation 1.4. Post-classical generic motivation 1.5. Post-classical artistic motivation 1.6. Conclusion 2. Post-classical space 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Intensified continuity 2.3. Graphic frame 2.4. Spatial montage 2.5. Conclusion 3. Post-classical time 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Mediated time 3.3. Complex chronology 3.4. Elastic duration 3.5. Conclusion 4. Post-classical narration 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Self-consciousness, knowledgeability, communicativeness 4.3. Levels of narration 4.4. Conclusion 5. The post-classical auteur: Quentin Tarantino 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Pulp Fiction (1994) 5.3. Kill Bill Vol. I (2003) 5.4. Inglourious Basterds (2009) 5.5. Once upon a time in Hollywood (2019) 5.6. Conclusion Conclusion References Filmography Appendix A: List of suggested post-classical films

Reviews

This guide offers the first comprehensive study of post-classical cinema as a prominent and consistent form of storytelling in the current media landscape. Merging ongoing debates in film narratology with key topics from contemporary cinema studies, the narratological analyses and case studies in this book show how the post-classical has developed into a rich and diverse narrative style, with a surprisingly consistent set of underlying compositional principles and norms. * Steven Willemsen, Assistant Professor in Arts, Culture, and Media, University of Groningen, Netherlands *

"This guide offers the first comprehensive study of post-classical cinema as a prominent and consistent form of storytelling in the current media landscape. Merging ongoing debates in film narratology with key topics from contemporary cinema studies, the narratological analyses and case studies in this book show how the post-classical has developed into a rich and diverse narrative style, with a surprisingly consistent set of underlying compositional principles and norms. * Steven Willemsen, Assistant Professor in Arts, Culture, and Media, University of Groningen, Netherlands * The complex fictional worlds of Nolan and Tarantino, among other contemporary filmmakers, are elucidated in Thanouli’s compelling approach to narrative analysis. A bracing and authoritative model for reading the most challenging film texts of the 21st century. * Robert Burgoyne, author of The New American War Film (2023) * This ""guide"" helps solve the Rubik’s Cube of Post-Classical Narration by exposing the innards of films that have baffled students since 1990. Sketching how 35 titles, drawn from her list of 220, expanded the rules and limits of storytelling on screen, Eleftheria Thanouli reinvigorates, with intensified continuity, the historical poetics championed by David Bordwell, her own distinguished guide. The fundaments of film theory uphold her bracingly clear survey of this spate of formerly (and formally) perplexing films, dissipating the critical fog surrounding them and shining back on film history in toto. * Dudley Andrew, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Film Studies, Yale University, USA *"

This guide offers the first comprehensive study of post-classical cinema as a prominent and consistent form of storytelling in the current media landscape. Merging ongoing debates in film narratology with key topics from contemporary cinema studies, the narratological analyses and case studies in this book show how the post-classical has developed into a rich and diverse narrative style, with a surprisingly consistent set of underlying compositional principles and norms. * Steven Willemsen, Assistant Professor in Arts, Culture, and Media, University of Groningen, Netherlands * The complex fictional worlds of Nolan and Tarantino, among other contemporary filmmakers, are elucidated in Thanouli’s compelling approach to narrative analysis. A bracing and authoritative model for reading the most challenging film texts of the 21st century. * Robert Burgoyne, author of The New American War Film (2023) *

Author Information

Eleftheria Thanouli is Professor in Film Theory at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and author of Post-classical Cinema: an International Poetics of Film Narration (2009), Wag the Dog: a Study on Film and Reality in the Digital Age (Bloomsbury, 2013) and History and Film: A Tale of Two Disciplines (Bloomsbury, 2018).

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