Bøger udgivet af SUNY Press

Slapstick film comedy may be grounded in idiocy and failure, but the genre is far more sophisticated than it initially appears. In this book, Burke Hilsabeck suggests that slapstick is often animated by a philosophical impulse to understand the cinema. He looks closely at movies and gags that represent the conditions and conventions of cinema production and demonstrates that film comedians display a canny and sometimes profound understanding of their medium--from Buster Keaton's encounter with the film screen in Sherlock Jr. (1924) to Harpo Marx's lip-sync turn with a phonograph in Monkey Business (1931) to Jerry Lewis's film-on-film performance in The Errand Boy (1961). The Slapstick Camera follows the observation of philosopher Stanley Cavell that self-reference is one way in which "film exists in a state of philosophy." By moving historically across the studio era, the book looks at a series of comedies that play with the changing technologies and economic practices behind film production and describes how comedians offered their own understanding of the nature of film and filmmaking. Hilsabeck locates the hidden intricacies of Hollywood cinema in a place where one might least expect them--the clowns, idiots, and scoundrels of slapstick comedy.

A study of novelty through analyses of the language of announcement in revolutionary texts.

Argues that the role of Buddhism in modern Japanese prose literature has been significantly overlooked.

Explores the possibilities and challenges of Asian immigrant Christian leadership in the United States.

Presents a new vision of the Buddhist history and philosophy of emptiness in Tibet.

Explains the Hindi novel's role in anticipating and creating the story of middle-class modernity and modernization in North India.

Argues that symbolism is an important and unique element of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology.

Argues for postcoloniality as a model for philosophical practice.

Examines Hegel's insights regarding the complexity and significance of embodiment in human life, identity, and experience.

Offers the first focused study of the shifei debates of the Warring States period in ancient China and challenges the imposition of Western conceptual categories onto these debates.

Examines the history of the Italian anarchist movement in New London, Connecticut.

The first detailed analysis in English of monarchy and governance in Korea during King Ch¿ngjo's reign.

Pairs literary works with philosophical and theoretical texts to examine how the Kantian sublime influenced authors in their treatments of freedom and subjectivity through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Introduction to American politics and government, intended for students of political science. Provides a critical examination of both political institutions and political behavior.

The first anthology of poetry, prose, and drama by second-generation Cuban American writers.

Assesses how cinematic biographies of key figures reflect and shape what it means to be British.

Provides firsthand perspectives from yoga practitioners and educators on the promises and challenges of school-based yoga programs.

Examines how Diasporic Black women engage in politics.

A wide-ranging exploration and critical assessment of the work of a major figure in Chinese and comparative philosophy.

Uses cultural representations to investigate how two religious minority communities came to be incorporated into the Mexican nation.

Studies the impact of lobbying efforts by domestic ethnic groups and foreign governments on US policymaking.

Examines the many ways water has contributed to power structures in the past, with insights for contemporary water management.

Sheds new light on pre-modern Chinese gender relationships in the context of marriage, male Confucian literati self-presentation, and social networks.

Attempts to think anew about philosophical questions from the perspective of breath and breathing.

Analyzes the nineteenth century canal age in the Niagara-Great Lakes borderland region as a transnational phenomenon.