Feb 5
Dr. Walter H. Judd Lectureship in Asian Studies, "Chinese Cinema's Historical Dialectics of Realism and Convention: The Case of Jia Zhangke's Post-Socialist Realism"

Discourses of "realism" have been crucial to Chinese cinema since its beginning in the early 20th century, but what exactly is "realism"? Instead of having one steady meaning, realism gets redefined periodically in response to historical changes and in a dialectical relationship with various sorts of conventions – either by conforming to the conventions of a particular conception of realism or by claiming a break with all conventions to force a confrontation with the Real itself. The rise of Jia Zhangke as China's premier independent realist filmmaker since the end of the 20th century provides a case study that shows how a radical new form of realism can emerge by breaking with previous realist conventions, but also how what seems new and shockingly real at one moment can quickly itself become conventionalized.
This talk is sponsored by Asian Studies and the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures.
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