Christian Metz

" --American FilmEmploying Freudian psychoanalysis, Christian Metz explores the nature of cinematic spectatorship and looks at the operations of meaning in the film text.

Psychoanalysis and the Cinema

The Imaginary Signifier

A pioneer in the field, Christian Metz applies insights of structural linguistics to the language of film. "The semiology of film . . . can be held to date from the publication in 1964 of the famous essay by Christian Metz, 'Le cinéma: langue ou langage?'"—Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Times Literary Supplement "Modern film theory begins with Metz."—Constance Penley, coeditor of Camera Obscura "Any consideration of semiology in relation to the particular field signifying practice of film passes inevitably through a reference to the work of Christian Metz. . . . The first book to be written in this field, [Film Language] is important not merely because of this primacy but also because of the issues it raises . . . issues that have become crucial to the contemporary argument."—Stephen Heath, Screen

A Semiotics of the Cinema

Film Language

Language and Cinema

Petra Rechenberg-Winter

Trauer in Familien, in einer Gruppe, im Team, innerhalb einer Organisation, in der Gesellschaft – immer ist es bedeutsam, Verlusterfahrungen in ihrer individuellen Einmaligkeit wahrzunehmen und anzuerkennen. Die vielfältigen Wirkungen und die bisweilen ungeahnte Tragweite von Leid sind untrennbar mit dem System der Trauernden verbunden. Wie lassen sich die beteiligten Systeme förderlicher verknüpfen? Wie können mögliche Verletzungen und Ausgrenzungen verhindert werden? Wer bestimmt in einem System, was wichtig ist? Wie können hierbei andere, »fremde« Standpunkte und Anliegen einbezogen werden? Solche Perspektivenerweiterungen können verdeckte und neue Handlungsräume zwischen den Systemen eröffnen. Weiterführende und entlastende Deutungen des oftmals Unbegreiflichen sind hilfreich.

Leidfaden 2015

Trauer hat System – Veränderungsdynamik in Krisen

This study contributes both to research on the literary presentation of love and to research on the writer Arnim. The study presents pioneering work by developing, on a systematic basis, a narratological and semiological concept of love and then successfully applies this concept to Achim von Arnim’s novel Gräfin Dolores. It profiles Gräfin Dolores as a romantic novel par excellence that parades all facets of romantic love in order to subject them to a radical critique and thus to develop a new way of telling a love story.

Achim von Arnims "Gräfin Dolores"

Die Narratologie der Liebe

L'énonciation impersonnelle, ou, Le site du film

Christian Metz is best known for applying Saussurean theories of semiology to film analysis. In the 1970s, he used Sigmund Freud's psychology and Jacques Lacan's mirror theory to explain the popularity of cinema. In this final book, Metz uses the concept of enunciation to articulate how films "speak" and explore where this communication occurs, offering critical direction for theorists who struggle with the phenomena of new media. If a film frame contains another frame, which frame do we emphasize? And should we consider this staging an impersonal act of enunciation? Consulting a range of genres and national trends, Metz builds a novel theory around the placement and subjectivity of screens within screens, which pulls in—and forces him to reassess—his work on authorship, film language, and the position of the spectator. Metz again takes up the linguistic and theoretical work of Benveniste, Genette, Casetti, and Bordwell, drawing surprising conclusions that presage current writings on digital media. Metz's analysis enriches work on cybernetic emergence, self-assembly, self-reference, hypertext, and texts that self-produce in such a way that the human element disappears. A critical introduction by Cormac Deane bolsters the connection between Metz's findings and nascent digital-media theory, emphasizing Metz's keen awareness of the methodological and philosophical concerns we wrestle with today.

Christian Metz

About

Books

Join the club