Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780520089242)

Departing from those who define postmodernism in film merely as a visual style or set of narrative conventions, Anne Friedberg develops the first sustained account of the cinema's role in postmodern culture. She explores the ways in which nineteenth-century visual experiences--photography, urban strolling, panorama and diorama entertainments--anticipate contemporary pleasures provided by cinema, video, shopping malls, and emerging "virtual reality" technologies.

Comparing the visual practices of shopping, tourism, and film-viewing, Friedberg identifies the experience of "virtual" mobility through time and space as a key determinant of postmodern cultural identity. Evaluating the theories of Jameson, Lyotard, Baudrillard, and others, she adds critical insights about the role of gender and gender mobility in the configurations of consumer culture.

A strikingly original work, Window Shopping challenges many of the existing assumptions about what exactly postmodern is. This book marks the emergence of a compelling new voice in the study of contemporary culture.

Author: Anne Friedberg
ISBN-10: 0520089243
ISBN-13: 9780520089242
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 08/31/1994
Pages: 287
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.02w x 0.77d