Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Why do we think of clusters of films as 'national cinema'? Why has the relationship between the nation and film become so widely and uncritically accepted? "Theorising National Cinema" is a major contribution to work on national cinema, by many of the leading scholars in the field. It addresses the knotty and complex relationship between cinema and national identity, showing that the nationality of a cinema production company, and the films that its made, have not always been seen as pertinent. The volume begins by reviewing and rethinking the concept of national cinema in an age of globalisation, and it goes on to chart the parallel developments of national film industries and the idea of a nation state in countries as diverse as Japan, South Korea, Russia, France and Italy. The issues of a 'national cinema' for nation states of contested status, with disputed borders or displaced peoples, is discussed in relation to film-making in Taiwan, Ireland and Palestine. The contributors also consider the future of national cinema in an age of trans-national cultural flows, exploring issues of national identity and cinema in Latin America, Asia, the Middle-East, India, Africa and Europe. "Theorising National Cinema" also includes a valuable bibliography of works on national cinema.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Notes on Contributors (p. vii)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Part I Theories
• 1 History, Textuality, Nation: Kracauer, Burch and Some Problems in the Study of National Cinemas (p. 17)
• 2 The National Revisited (p. 29)
• 3 Reconceptualising National Cinema/s (p. 44)
• Part II Histories
• 4 Italian Cinema and History (p. 61)
• 5 Russia: The Cinema of Anti-modernity and Backward Progress (p. 72)
• 6 National Cinema in Ireland (p. 88)
• 7 British Cinema as National Cinema (p. 100)
• 8 Ozu and the Nation (p. 114)
• 9 The Break-up of the National Body: Cosmetic Multiculturalism and the Films of Miike Takashi (p. 129)
• 10 Taiwan New Cinema, or a Global Nativism? (p. 138)
• 11 From National Cinema to Cinema and the National: Chinese-language Cinema and Hou Hsiao-hsien's 'Taiwan Trilogy' (p. 148)
• 12 'We're in the Money!' A Brief History of Market Power Concentration and Risk Aversion in the American Film Industry from the Edison Trust to the Rise of Transnational Media Conglomerates (p. 158)
• 13 National and Postnational French Cinema (p. 172)
• 14 From Cine-mania to Blockbusters and Trans-cinema: Reflections on Recent South Korean Cinema (p. 186)
• 15 The Hidden Conscience of Estimated Palestine (p. 202)
• Part III Crossroads
• 16 Early Cinema and Modernity in Latin America (p. 209)
• 17 The Quest for/Obsession with the National in Arabic Cinema (p. 226)
• 18 National/International/Transnational: The Concept of Trans-Asian Cinema and the Cultural Politics of Film Criticism (p. 254)
• 19 Not a Biography of the 'Indian Cinema': Historiography and the Question of National Cinema in India (p. 262)
• 20 On the National in African Cinema/s: A Conversation (p. 274)
• 21 Spaces of Identity: Communications Technologies and the Reconfiguration of Europe (p. 293)
• Bibliography (p. 304)
• Index (p. 322)