Neoliberalism and Global Cinema: Capital, Culture, and Marxist Critique (Routledge Advances in Film Studies)

In cinema studies today, rarely do we find a directinvestigation into the culture of capitalism and how it has beenrefracted and fabricated in global cinema production underneoliberalism. However, the current economic crisis and thesubsequent Wall Street bailout in 2008 have brought about aworldwide skepticism regarding the last four decades of economicrestructuring and the culture that has accompanied it. In thisedited volume, an international ensemble of scholars looks atneoliberalism, both as culture and political economy, in thevarious cinemas of the world. In essays encompassing the cinemas ofAsia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the United States theauthors outline how the culture and subjectivities engendered byneoliberalism have been variously performed, contested, andreinforced in these cinemas. The premise of this book is that thecultural and economic logic of neoliberalism, i.e., the radicalfinancialization and market-driven calculations, of all facets ofsociety are symptoms best understood by Marxist theory and itsanalysis of the central antagonisms and contradictions of capital.Taking a variety of approaches, ranging from political economy,ideological critique, the intersection of aesthetics and politics,social history and critical-cultural theory, this volume offers afresh, broad-based Marxist analysis of contemporary film/media.Topics include: the global albeit antagonistic nature of neoliberalculture; the search for a new aesthetic and documentary language;the contestation between labor and capital in cultural producion;the political economy of hollywood, and questions of gender,sexuality, and the nation state in relation to neoliberalism.