Beyond Realism

Reviews / Votes

"Robert Singer's Beyond Realism: Naturalist Film in Theory and Practice is a comprehensive guide to naturalistic film; Singer has been the leading global expert on this topic for many years. His book is a life's work. He is able to move from the dark corners and sharp bright angles of early film to similar naturalist concerns in cinema today: social struggle, poverty, homelessness, violence, injustice, the naturalistic body, psychological conflicts, and many other features. It's an erudite but engaging read and a must for any naturalist or film student." -- Jeanne Campbell Reesman, Professor Emerita, University of Texas at San Antonio Beyond Realism: Naturalist Film in Theory and Practice is a treatise on naturalist themes and the moving image, a platform of continuous intertextual references. With this book, Singer takes us on a fascinating (inter)national journey of theories, genres and themes dedicated to the naturalist film, while also presenting a renewed vision of ourselves and our bodies as spectacles. -- Jose Duarte, Film Studies Professor at the School of Arts and Humanities, ULisboa. Robert Singer's Beyond Realism: Naturalist Film in Theory and Practice is a breathtakingly comprehensive and insightful investigation of naturalist themes in film. From Lumiere actualites to the latest examples of international cinema, each chapter focuses on a separate facet of "naturalism's grinding tradition" and its themes of violence, degradation, disease, and the tension between the human spirit and naturalism's relentless assault on the body. -- Professor Donna M. Campbell, author of Bitter Tastes: Literary Naturalism and Early Cinema in American Women's Writing Both a radical and fundamentally joyous celebration of Naturalist cinema, Singer here transcends the orthodox dominance of Realism on cinema discourse and painstakingly presents another way of thinking about the relationship of our world to the one we see on screen. -- Alexandra Heller-Nicholas * Film International * This illuminating study is very good at finding themes, images, and figures-mine, factory, morgue, Darwin, Dr. Moreau-with which to organize its avowedly experimental, critical excursion. -- S. C. Dillon * CHOICE connect * Robert Singer's new book reads like a magnum opus: an enthusiastic and generous culmination of over three decades of Singer's scholarship on naturalism in literature and film. -- Jeff Jaeckle * Studies in American Naturalism *