The Recalcitrant Discipline. Issue 1 (1st May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Frey, Mattias
• Is Part Of: Film studies. Volume 12:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 10
• Page End: 18
• Publication Date: 2015-05-01
• Subjects: Motion pictures -- History -- Periodicals; Motion pictures -- Periodicals; 791.43
• DOI: 10.7227/FS.12.0003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1469-0314

Abstract

Abstract : This article addresses the current state of film studies as a discipline, profession and institution, arguing that the hunt for cultural authority has been the defining feature, motivating force and tragic flaw of film studies. The current self-reflexive soul- searching reveals that the field – no longer a radical upstart – still lacks the gravitas of more established subjects. Departments have responded to identity crises and changing enrolment patterns by mummifying, killing off or burying foundational emphases. The nostalgia for film studies' origins and the jeremiads about an unmanageable, unruly and recalcitrant discipline yield rose-tinted fantasies about community and mutual intelligibility that must be ultimately resisted.