{"product_id":"utopian-television-michael-cramer-9781517900397","title":"Utopian Television: Rossellini, Watkins, and Godard Beyond Cinema","description":"\u003cp\u003eTelevision has long been a symbol of social and cultural decay, yet many in postwar Europe saw it as the medium with the greatest potential to help build a new society and create a new form of audiovisual art. \u003ci\u003eUtopian Television\u003c\/i\u003e examines works of the great filmmakers Roberto Rossellini, Peter Watkins, and Jean-Luc Godard, all of whom looked to television as a promising new medium even while remaining critical of its existing practices.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eUtopian Television\u003c\/i\u003e illustrates how each director imagined television's improved or \"utopian\" version by drawing on elements that had come to characterize it by the early 1960s. Taking advantage of the public service model of Western European broadcasting, each used television to realize works that would never have been viable in the commercial cinema. All three directors likewise seized on television's supposed affinity for information and its status as a \"useful\" medium, but attempted to join this utility with aesthetic experimentation, suggesting new ways to conceive of the relationship between aesthetics and information.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs beautifully written as it is theoretically rigorous, \u003ci\u003eUtopian Television\u003c\/i\u003e turns to the writing of Fredric Jameson and Ernst Bloch in treating the three directors' television experiments as enactments of \"utopia as method.\" In doing so it reveals the extent to which the medium inspired and shaped hopes not only of a better future but of better moving image art as well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michael Cramer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1517900395\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781517900397\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/14\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.50w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2017","brand":"Michael Cramer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44077941031167,"sku":"9781517900397","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d8ac3169-3771-4318-871d-08e5c1d43569.jpg?v=1685472637","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/utopian-television-michael-cramer-9781517900397","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}