ABSTRACT
The development of film theory was significantly enhanced by the emergence of several important journals. In the 1970s and 1980s, film theory enjoyed a period of tremendous growth and development. Feminist film theory became an especially important focal point during this time, synthesizing Screen's theoretical interests with a more focused sense of political urgency. Although the British journal Screen was the most prominent of these, others like Jump Cut, Camera Obscura, and October were equally representative of the general theoretical ferment that developed during this period. Post-colonial theorists similarly went on to interrogate the role of Euro-centrism and the history of colonial rule in structuring the images of racial and ethnic minorities. Queer theorists, in turn, questioned the pervasiveness of heterosexuality in shaping the form and function of desire. By the end of the 1980s, film study was firmly established within the Anglo-American academy thanks in part to the intellectual richness and wide-ranging success of Screen Theory.
