• “The Class of Images: Sketch for a Research Project”

    Author(s):
    Sérgio Dias Branco (see profile)
    Date:
    2019
    Group(s):
    Film Studies, Religious Studies
    Item Type:
    Conference proceeding
    Conf. Title:
    Politics and Image
    Conf. Org.:
    Institute for Philosophical Studies - University of Coimbra
    Conf. Loc.:
    Coimbra
    Conf. Date:
    16 November 2018
    Tag(s):
    Film studies, Religious studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/vjae-jy76
    Abstract:
    The concept of class has been progressively erased in contemporary discussions around art — and other topics. The explanatory power of this economic and social category, as articulated by Karl Marx, has been annulled precisely at a time when the contradictions of late capitalism are growing, composing an ideological background that creates conditions for the perpetuation of this system. From a Marxist point of view, class is neither a product of Marx’s invention nor of anyone who thinks with him, but reflects existing social relations and the dynamics of everyday life. By isolating art production from historical processes, by privileging the inner workings of languages, by favoring an aestheticist approach to art, postmodernist cultural theory has relinquished critical knowledge about art as a phenomenon irremediably pertaining to the social fabric. If in this theoretical framework, cultural differences replaced class antagonisms as the driving force of society, then one must ask how these differences emerge and operate, what determines them and what do they produce, thus recognizing the fundamental importance of their material basis. To think critically about art to its foundations is to re-materialize it as a production process instead of analyzing works of art in an idealist manner. The same may be said about religion. In order to tackle these matters, I will focus on film images understood as material, creative, and symbolic productions, and in the way they evoke class antinomies, expose class marks, and use Christian concepts and imagery in the portrait of working-class life in American cinema.
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    Published as:
    Conference proceeding     Show details
    Publisher:
    Institute for Philosophical Studies - University of Coimbra
    Pub. Date:
    2019
    Proceeding:
    Politics and Image
    Page Range:
    119 - 124
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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