In studying cinema as complex as the work of Akira Kurosawa, argues James Goodwin, recent ideas about intertextuality provide a more helpful paradigm than traditional notions of auteurism. In this text, he draws on contemporary theoretical and critical approaches to explore Kurosawa's use of a variety of texts to create cinema that is both intertextual and intercultural. Examining major films as well as lesser-known works, Goodwin finds in Kurosawa's themes and techniques the capacity to restructure perceptions of Western and Japanese cultures and to establish new intercultural meanings. The work of Dostoevsky, for example, emerges as a primary intertext for Kurosawa, with traits such as extremism, psychological doubling and paradox. Goodwin's discussion encompasses the Russian intertexts to "The Idiot" and "The Lower Depths", modernist narrative in "Rashomon" and "Ikiru" and the issue of heroism in "Throne of Blood" and "Ran". He concludes by extending his analysis of visual, musical and biographical intertexts to Kurosawa's other films. James Goodwin is the author of "Eisenstein, Cinema, and History".
- ISBN10 0801846609
- ISBN13 9780801846601
- Publish Date 26 January 1994
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 13 August 1998
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 280
- Language English
- URL http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=9780801846601&qty=1&viewMode=1&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y