APPENDIX II
GLOSSARY OF KEY THEORISTS

Adorno, Theodor (1903–69): German intellectual and leading member of the Frankfurt School; best known in relation to film for his devastating critique (co-written with Max Horkheimer) of the culture industries as a ruthless extension of capitalist domination.

Althusser, Louis (1918–90): French theorist who initiated a renewed interest in Marx and is best known for emphasizing the role of ideology in maintaining the existing system of social relations; ideology, in his view, interpellates subjects into a system in which they are compelled to forfeit any ability to effect change.

Andrew, Dudley: Contemporary film scholar and key figure in the establishment of film studies as an academic discipline; leading advocate in the return to André Bazin’s work and a more general reassessment of cinematic realism.

Arnheim, Rudolf (1904–2007): German-born scholar of art and psychology who advocated a formalist approach to cinema, believing that film’s artistic potential rested in the formal techniques like editing that distanced the medium from its affinity for mimesis or realism.

Balázs, Béla (1884–1949): Hungarian film theorist best known for his account of the emotional and dramatic powers of the close-up.

Barthes, Roland (1915–80): French theorist who applied the tenets of structuralism to cultural and literary analysis; in Mythologies, he develops an analysis of second-order signifying practices whereby meaning is naturalized and the status quo reinforced.

Baudry, Jean-Louis: French writer and member of the editorial committee at Tel Quel; best known for a series of essays that condemn cinema as an ideological apparatus.

Bazin, André (1918–58): Key figure in post-war French film culture and theorist of cinematic realism; a co-founder of the influential journal Cahiers du cinéma and proponent of European art cinema who articulated the significance of movements like Italian neorealism.

Benjamin, Walter (1892–1940): German intellectual loosely associated with the Frankfurt School who gained prominence posthumously due to his unconventional approach to culture, art, and politics; he is best known for claiming that new technologies like film had eliminated aura as art’s distinguishing feature.

Bhabha, Homi: Contemporary post-colonial theorist who explores the potential within hybrid identities and the interstitial spaces opened up through cultural difference.

Bordwell, David: Contemporary film scholar who has written extensively on classical Hollywood, individual filmmakers, and art cinema; his work draws attention to film’s formal elements, characterizing this approach as historical poetics.

Brecht, Bertolt (1898–1956): German playwright best known for encouraging the use of alienation effects, techniques designed to expose established conventions and disrupt the pleasure associated with these conventions.

Breton, André (1896–1966): French writer and leader of the surrealist movement.

Butler, Judith: Contemporary queer theorist who argues that sex and gender are discursively constructed; these categories are constituted and maintained through the performance of gender norms; queer identities foreground the performativity implicit in these norms.

Carroll, Noël: Contemporary film theorist with a wide range of interests spanning from the philosophy of art in general to the emergence of cognitive sciences in the reappraisal of principles drawn from French theory.

Chion, Michel: Contemporary French film theorist who focuses on sound.

de Lauretis, Teresa: Contemporary theorist whose work engages the intersection between feminist film theory and queer theory; returns to psychoanalysis while also incorporating post-structuralism as part of these efforts.

Deleuze, Gilles (1925–95): French philosopher who addressed cinema in a two-book study published in the 1980s; though initially an outlier compared to other French theorists, his work provides an innovative new approach that opens cinema to new philosophical consideration; Deleuze is particularly interested in the relationship between cinema and time.

Delluc, Louis (1890–1924): An influential critic and filmmaker who played a significant role in developing France’s film culture in the 1920s and in promoting concepts like photogénie.

Dulac, Germaine (1882–1942): A French filmmaker and critic who identified several of the stylistic features associated with cinematic impressionism.

Eisenstein, Sergei (1898–1948): Soviet film theorist and filmmaker who considered montage to be an extension of dialectical materialism and the best way to foster cinema’s political and intellectual implications.

Epstein, Jean (1897–1953): A filmmaker and critic associated with France’s film culture in the 1920s and the emergence of concepts like photogénie.

Foucault, Michel (1926–84): French philosopher who wrote on a wide range of topics related to power and discourse; his analysis of the prison system and disciplinary practices became well known for his discussion of the panopticon, a system in which prisoners can be observed at any time without their knowing.

Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939): Austrian founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical practice and collection of theories dedicated to the interpretation of the unconscious and other human behaviors.

Gramsci, Antonio (1891–1937): Italian Marxist and socialist activist known for his account of hegemony, which explains how social control is cultivated through mutual consent rather than direct force.

Gunning, Tom: Contemporary film scholar best known for his work on early cinema and specifically his notion of early cinema as a cinema of attractions—one that directly addresses spectators, inciting visual curiosity by foregrounding the novelty of cinematic technologies.

Hall, Stuart (1932–2014): British cultural theorist associated with the development of cultural studies.

Hansen, Miriam (1949–2011): Contemporary film scholar who prompted a return to the work of Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer and a general reassessment of the Frankfurt School’s engagement with cinema.

Heath, Stephen: Contemporary film theorist associated with the British journal Screen and especially active in the 1970s; representative of that period’s effort to bring together psychoanalysis, semiotics, and Marxist ideology critique through detailed narrative and formal analysis.

Jameson, Fredric: Contemporary Marxist theorist and philosopher who has written widely on culture, literature, art, and film.

Kracauer, Siegfried (1889–1966): German intellectual who wrote extensively about culture and society. After emigrating to the United States in 1941, he completed several book-length studies devoted to cinema. He tends to emphasize film’s realist properties, but also considered its more dialectical nuances and its complex relationship to modern experience.

Kuleshov, Lev (1899–1970): Soviet filmmaker and theorist whose workshop at the Moscow Film School established the importance of montage; also known for the “Kuleshov effect,” the principle that meaning is produced through the relationship between multiple shots.

Lacan, Jacques (1901–81): French psychoanalyst who incorporated structuralist linguistics, philosophy, and references to modern art in his return to Freud; best known for his theory of the mirror stage in which subjectivity is formed as part of the visual exchange that takes place when an infant first encounters their reflection.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1908–2009): French anthropologist and critical figure in launching structuralism; transposed the principles of structuralist linguistics to the study of cultural institutions like marriage rites and family structure across different social systems.

Lindsay, Vachel (1879–1931): American poet and author of one of the first book-length studies of cinema.

MacCabe, Colin: Contemporary film theorist associated with the British journal Screen; his account of the classic realist text is representative of a shift in focus away from issues related to medium specificity to a growing emphasis on discursive analysis.

Marx, Karl (1818–83): German political theorist who analyzed society as structured by class conflict; he developed influential views about history and economics, and advocated for a revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system.

Metz, Christian (1931–93): French film theorist who thoroughly investigated the relationship between cinema and language; became interested in the syntagmatic organization of film and developed a taxonomy of common sequential units; after his initial focus on semiotic issues, Metz considered the relationship between cinema and psychoanalysis.

Mulvey, Laura: Contemporary feminist film theorist and filmmaker; her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” marked an important turning point in film study, inaugurating intense debates about how the male gaze structures the female’s function as an erotic spectacle and the possibility of creating an alternative cinema devoted to female spectators.

Münsterberg, Hugo (1863–1916): German-born Harvard professor of psychology and author of The Photoplay: A Psychological Study, which argues that film’s formal operations parallel cognitive faculties like attention, memory, and imagination.

Nichols, Bill: Contemporary film theorist best known for drawing critical attention to documentary.

Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839–1914): American philosopher who gained posthumous attention with the rise of semiotics. He identified three types of signs: iconic, symbolic, and indexical. Indexical signs include representations that share an existential bond with their referent, a designation that has been used to explain the photochemical process in the recording of cinematic images.

Rodowick, D. N.: Contemporary film theorist who has written extensively about the influence of French theory and the formation of film study as a distinct theoretical discourse.

Sarris, Andrew (1928–2012): American film critic and popularizer of the auteur theory.

Saussure, Ferdinand de (1857–1913): Founder of modern linguistics and an important influence in the foundation of structuralism; drew attention to the sign as the smallest unit of meaning within language, an approach that served as a model for semiotics and the study of other sign systems.

Silverman, Kaja: Contemporary feminist film theorist who draws on Lacanian psychoanalysis to demonstrate that all cultural subjects experience symbolic castration.

Trinh T., Minh-ha: Contemporary theorist and filmmaker; joins post-structuralism with performative techniques in both her writing and filmmaking as a way to critique the implicit Euro-centrism within the university system.

Vertov, Dziga (1896–1954): Soviet filmmaker and theorist who celebrated the powers of what he termed the Kino-Eye, or cinema’s ability to reveal and rethink modern life.

Williams, Linda: Contemporary feminist film theorist and scholar with a wide range of interests; well known for initiating the critical study of pornography.

Wollen, Peter: Contemporary film theorist associated with the British journal Screen. His book Signs and Meaning was one of the first to introduce Anglophone readers to the tenets of French Theory. He advocated for the development of a counter-cinema and went on to make several films with Laura Mulvey.