ABSTRACT
The arguments which dominate most traditional texts on film theory revolve around the formalism/realism debate (that is, whether or not to talk about film by way of its artistic - 'formal' - unity or by way of its specific relation to the particular world it is attempting to capture within its frames - its 'realism'). It is a debate which has a history as long as that of the medium itself, although its terms do keep changing. In their traditional form, rooted in arguments from the 1940s and 1950s, both the realist and formalist positions are aesthetic in that they are finally interested in evaluating how successful a film is as art, rather than as a social activity for its audience. There has, however, been a change in the kind of approach taken in film studies in the last couple of decades, and the movement away from a predominantly aesthetic approach is one that informs this book.
