Skvirsky B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1997 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2002
THE ETHNIC TURN: STUDIES IN POLITICAL CINEMA FROM BRAZIL AND THE UNITED STATES, 1960-2002 by Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1997 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2002 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Critical and Cultural Studies University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky It was defended on August 31, 2009 and approved by Marcia Landy, Distinguished Professor, English Department Shalini Puri, Associate Professor, English Department Adam Lowenstein, Associate Professor, English Department Neepa Majumdar, Associate Professor, English Department John Beverley, Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures Dissertation Director: Marcia Landy, Distinguished Professor, English Department ii Copyright © by Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky 2009 iii THE ETHNIC TURN: STUDIES IN POLITICAL CINEMA FROM BRAZIL AND THE UNITED STATES, 1960-2002 Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2009 What makes political cinema political? It used to be that the category of political cinema was understood to designate a body of work with a very determinate political orientation. When Comolli and Narboni wrote about political cinema in the late 1960s, they were writing about a cinematic practice defined by its opposition to the capitalist status quo and aiming at the transformation of the social world. But as Marxism has suffered a crisis over the last decades, so has the concept of a political cinema, which has since lost its specificity. I claim that since the late sixties there has been a shift in ideas and practices concerning political cinema: a class-oriented, anti-capitalist conception of politics has given way to a conception of politics that is primarily, though not exclusively, identity-oriented.
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