Dialectics without Synthesis explores Japan's active but previously unrecognized participation in the global circulation of film theory during the first half of the twentieth century. Examining a variety of Japanese theorists working in the fields of film, literature, avant-garde art, Marxism, and philosophy, Naoki Yamamoto offers a new approach to cinematic realism as culturally conditioned articulations of the shifting relationship of film to the experience of modernity. In this study, long-held oppositions between realism and modernism, universalism and particularism, and most notably, the West and the non-West are challenged through a radical reconfiguration of the geopolitics of knowledge production and consumption.

About the Author

Naoki Yamamoto is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

"Dialectics without Synthesis is a valuable addition to film studies and should be of interest not only to Japanese film specialists but to film and media theorists more broadly."

* The Journal of Japanese Studies *
"Exceptionally meticulous archival research, humanity-driven methodologies, and special attention to historical context. . . .Dialectics without Synthesis is a step forward toward a future in which the chasm between Western and non-Western theory is significantly narrowed." * The Velvet Light Trap *
"Well-researched and persuasively argued." * Screen *



Book Information
ISBN 9780520351806
Author Naoki Yamamoto
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 363g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm