Whilst it is interesting to see that my review has sparked
a discussion, I'm slightly worried that it is already going
around in circles - if not vaulting a few horses and
pirouetting.
The real point I was making is that, as someone with
passion for bringing new theories to the classroom
(especially those combining film with the visual arts in
general), I find students are exasperated by many a prose
style.
Sometimes, I know, it is a shame that language changes over
time, and there is always a more limpid time past that we
can remember. In the same way, it would be nice if the
average undergraguate student could have as wide a
vocabulary as we would wish it. I hate the thought that we
might be producing the 'Ladybird' book of film theory (UK
contributors will know what I mean) in years to come, but
herein lies the problem. Whilst we'd like to legislate for
what students 'should' be able to do (in our eyes), we can
in fact only legislate for what they 'can' do - and maybe
widen their vocabulary a little bit.
However, there are some texts in which understanding the
language is a *huge* leap, sometimes into the dark. As a
researcher, this stimulates me, but as a teacher, I know
that some of my students will too readily get to a stage
when reading is simply a matter of counting the words on a
page. The tragedy of this is that an important book on
cinema and photography can only feasably be recommended to
the brightest, most advanced, honours/3rd year student: not
an ideal situation in this case.
If I want to teach them about this subject, I need texts
that they won't give up on beyond the first few pages.
That's all - but one more thing. Even though, as has been
suggested, Bazin's influence is partly due to his use of a
clear, 'timeless' style of writing, it is thus a
contributory factor to the lack of further understanding
carried out on photography by scholars of film. People are
happy to take his word for it. Perhaps if he was less
influential, slightly loopier (or more eccentric), and
(dare I say it) more controversial, we might have a broader
understanding and a more 'developed' debate on the
photograph and its relation to cinema.
Damian
Damian Peter Sutton
PhD Candidate
University of Glasgow
Department of French
16 University Gardens
Glasgow G12 8QL
tel 0141-330 5642
fax 0141-330 4234
email [log in to unmask]
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