This Film and Media Studies/Carsey-Wolf Center Colloquium will feature Naoki Yamamoto’s recently published monograph, Dialectics without Synthesis: Japanese Film Theory and Realism in a Global Frame (UC Press, 2020). The monograph explores Japan’s active but previously unrecognized contributions to the global circulation of film theory during the first half of the Twentieth Century. It is in an attempt to break with our conventional treatment of “theory” as the exclusive domain of the West. The event will feature brief presentations by Aaron Gerow (Yale University) and Masha Salazkina (Concordia University), with a response by Naoki Yamamoto (UC Santa Barbara)
The invited speakers will address the book’s themes and contexts. The conversation will point to the development of Yamamoto’s work with Aaron Gerow, as his former advisor and colleague, and consider new horizons of world cinema and Marxian discourse, marking Masha Salazkina’s engagement with Yamamoto’s work. A brief response by Yamamoto, and an extended Q&A with those in attendance will follow.
Registrants are encouraged to read selections from the monograph (introduction and chapter 5), which can be accessed here.