The Persistence Of History

This anthology of essays focuses on the challenge of historical representation in film, specifically in the context of the modernist event. The modernist event is a term used to describe novel historical occurrences unthinkable before the 20th century, and raised to visibility, if not intelligibility, through the mass mediations of film and television. The contributors explore how the moving image has not only challenged, but completely altered, traditional modes of historical thought and representation. They look at how the modernist event has raised questions about what are the appropriate forms of media for making the incoherence and fragmentation of contemporary history intelligible and meaningful.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Rodney King beating, the O.J. Simpson trial, what is to count as history, and how can it be recounted? This is an anthology of essays from major film scholars and historians which focuses on a radical contemporary challenge to historical representation in film. This challenge is brought about by what the collection terms the modernist event - novel historical occurrences unthinkable before the 20th century and raised to visibility, if not intelligibility, through the mass mediations of film and television. Contributors look at how the moving image has not only challenged, but completely altered, traditional modes of historical thought and representation. Exploring a range of film and video texts, from The Ten Commandments to the Rodney King video, from the projected work of documentarian Errol Morris to Oliver Stone's JFK and Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List , this volume asks what are the appropriate forms of media for making the incoherence and fragmentation of contemporary history intelligible and meaningful?