Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:24:50 -0500 (CDT)
From: Patrick B Bjork <bjork-AT-badlands.NoDak.edu>
Subject: Re: Film Theory/Jargon
To: film-theory-AT-world.std.com
Cc: film-theory-AT-world.std.com




On Wed, 22 Jun 1994, Pablo Bellon wrote:

> 
> There's quite a lively thread going here. Thought I would add my two cents
> worth.
> 
> I'm not really grounded in theoritical discourse, but it seems to me that
> if film was to be accepted as a "serious" art form, or to be viewed as
> having intellectual significance -- then it would be important to develop
> models and language reflective of academic paradigms  that would withstand
> critical analysis. Unfortunately, that also included the co-option of all
> its evils... intellectual elitism,  contrived psychoanalytic constructs
> enigmatic terminology, et cetera.

What you're suggesting here, that criticism/theory give credence to art 
has no basis in historical reality. Although much has been made of the 
singular value of theory, I doubt very much if it could survive without 
the spector of art as an ongoing presence.  


> So what's the pragmatic application of all this?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "pragmatic." Theory can be easily 
appropriated in the classroom; for instance, in my own lit. classes 
reader-response is an ongoing paradigm although not overtly so. Also, 
theory can viewed as a commodity, although unlike the legal profession ,
its language does not guarantee the same exclusionary position. It is 
understood, however, in  academe that appropriating this commodity is 
valuable in relation to publishing, although at least in the fields of 
language and literature, there are isolated attempts to counteract the 
value of appropriating certain theoritical writing styles.  
 
> It's quite useful for impressing folks at various cheese and wine
> escapades, or, defending bad films that only you happen to like.
> -pablo
> 
 You may be confusing theory and criticsm here; often theory appears more 
akin to philosophy; Derrida, as you may know, is not a film or literary 
critic, but a philosopher. So, although the two intersec oftentimes 
theory place more emphasis on how we may approach a work of art, and more 
often we may use a particular theory to open out a text without a 
prescribed  hierarchial value  which, in many cases, is merely 
subjective anyway.

--Patrick