Article:

Sea-change: Transforming the ‘crisis’ in film theory

For some years now the academic study of film, particularly in the English-speaking world, has been marked by a sense of crisis; a period of rumination, self-examination, and speculation over the nature of its object, its cultural relevance, and its disciplinary future. Although it is difficult to generalise across varying cultural and institutional contexts, the discipline of film studies, whatever forms it currently takes, is not alone in this regard. Many other humanities disciplines have been undergoing similar anxieties and insecurities, both in respect of their institutional status and their broader cultural relevance in a technological and economically rationalist age.