Acinemas: Lyotard's Philosophy of Film

This collection presents, for the first time in English, Jean-François Lyotard’s major essays on film: 'Acinema', 'The Unconscious as Mise-en-scène', 'Two Metamorphoses of the Seductive in Cinema' and 'The Idea of a Sovereign Film'. Then, eight critical essays by philosophers and film theorists examine Lyotard's film work and influence across two sections: 'Approaches and Interpretations' and 'Applications and Extensions'. These works are complemented by an introductory essay by leading French scholar Jean-Michel Durafour on Lyotard’s film-philosophy, an overview of Lyotard’s practical film projects written by his collaborators Claudine Eizykman and Guy Fihman, and the synopsis for a later film project Memorial Immemorial, which Lyotard proposed but was not produced.

Jean-François Lyotard was the most significant aesthetician of the poststructuralist generation, but this dimension of his thought is only recently beginning to receive the attention it deserves in the English-speaking world. He devoted a number of essays to film, and was involved in making several experimental short films. Lyotard’s reflections on film offer a perspective which seeks to do justice to it as an art by focusing on its aesthetic, material qualities. His work in this area remains a largely untapped resource, with the potential for inaugurating exciting new directions in film-philosophy.

Kiff Bamford, Leeds Beckett University, UK

Keith Crome, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Jean-Michel Durafour, University Paris-Est, France

Claudine Eizykman, University of Paris 8, France

Guy Fihman, University of Paris 8, France

Julie Gaillard, Emory University, USA

Jon Hackett, St Mary’s University, UK

Vlad Ionescu, Hasselt University, Belgium

Graham Jones, Federation University, Australia　

Peter W. Milne, Seoul National University, South Korea

Lisa Trahair, New South Wales, Australia

Susana Viegas, Nova University of Lisbon (NOVA), Portugal and Deakin University, Australia

James Williams, Deakin University, Australia