The recent uproar over NSA surveillance can obscure the fact that surveillance has been an indelible part of contemporary life for decades. And cinema has long been aware of its power - and potential for abuse. In Closed Circuits, Garrett Stewart explores a panoply of films, from M and Rear Window to The Conversation and The Bourne Legacy, to analyze the ways in which cinema has articulated the concept of surveillance. While it has long been a mainstay of the thriller, surveillance, Stewart argues, speaks to something more foundational in the very work of the camera. The shared axis of montage and espionage - especially the way that point of view and editing techniques are designed to draw us in and make us forget the omnipresence of the camera - offers an entry point to larger questions about the politics of an oversight regime that is increasingly remote and robotic, a global technopticon. Dazzling in its breadth of reference, and far-reaching in its conclusions about both cinematic and real-world surveillance, Closed Circuits further confirms Garrett Stewart as among our leading theorists of narrative.

About the Author
Garrett Stewart is the James O. Freedman Professor of Letters in the Department English at the University of Iowa and the author of numerous books on fiction and film.

Reviews
"A remarkable book on the cinema of surveillance. It is as comfortable with settled masterpieces like M and Rear Window as it is with last week's blockbuster, and it knows the difference between them. Deeply informed by narrative theory, film theory, and media theory, the eye-opening arguments bear on issues of real moment in our time." (James Chandler, University of Chicago)"



Book Information
ISBN 9780226201498
Author Garrett Stewart
Format Paperback
Page Count 296
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 425g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 17mm * 2mm