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Devices of Curiosity: Early Cinema and Popular Science

Online ISBN:
9780190235987
Print ISBN:
9780199860685
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Devices of Curiosity: Early Cinema and Popular Science

Oliver Gaycken
Oliver Gaycken

Assistant Professor of English

University of Maryland, Assistant Professor of English
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Published online:
23 April 2015
Published in print:
1 May 2015
Online ISBN:
9780190235987
Print ISBN:
9780199860685
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book excavates a largely unknown genre of early cinema, the popular-science film. Primarily a work of cinema history, it also draws on the insights of the history of science. Beginning around 1903, a variety of producers made films about scientific topics for general audiences, inspired by a vision of cinema as an educational medium. This book traces the development of popular-science films over the first half of the silent era, from its beginnings in England to its flourishing in France around 1910. These films initially relied upon previous traditions such as the magic-lantern lecture for their representational strategies, and they continually had recourse to established visual iconography, but they also created novel visual paradigms and led to the creation of ambitious new film collections. The book thus also considers how popular-science films exemplify the circulation of knowledge. Finally, the book discerns a transit between nonfictional and fictional modes, seeing affinities between popular-science films and certain aspects of fiction films, particularly Louis Feuillade’s crime melodramas. This kind of circulation is important for an understanding of the wider relevance of early popular-science films to cinema studies, in particular their influence on documentary, educational, and avant-garde cinemas.

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