Readings and Writings: Semiotic Counter-Strategies

by Peter Wollen

The films of Hitchcock, Welles and Godard; the aesthetics of photography and the technology of cinema; art and revolution in Russia and in Mexico; the avant-gardes in film and in painting—these are among the many topics of Peter Wollen’s essays. Interwoven with fictional treatments of such themes as memory, dream, sexuality and writing, they compose a remarkable, perhaps unique, volume.

These “readings and writings” are informed by Marxism, semiotics, psychoanalysis, and the history of art itself. Their concern is with with the ways in which meanings are produced in dominant art forms and with the counter-strategies by which these meanings may be questioned or dislodged, in the practice of politically and aesthetically radical alternatives. A concluding retrospect reviews the political, intellectual and aesthetic avant-garde currents of the fifteen years over which these texts were written, outlining some perspectives for oppositional art today.

Genres: Film, Writing

228 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1982

About the author

Peter Wollen was an English film theorist and filmmaker. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's Signs and Meaning in the Cinema (1969) helped to transform the discipline of film studies by incorporating the methodology of structuralism and semiotics. He taught film at a number of universities and was Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, at the time of his retirement.

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Semiotics are maybe not my bag, baby, but Wollen's collection is far ranging and has a lot of worthwhile essays. His gloss on the history of revolutionary art in the early Soviet Union is beautifully succinct, and the more 'creative' essays at the back half of the book showcase his artistic side more than I expected going in to this book.