Persistence of History

<p><strong><em>The Persistence of History</em></strong> examines how the moving image has completely altered traditional modes of historical thought and representation. Exploring a range of film and video texts, from <em>The Ten Commandments</em> to the Rodney King video, from the projected work of documentarian Errol Morris to Oliver Stone's <em>JFK</em> and Spielberg's <em>Schindler's List</em>, the volume questions the appropriate forms of media for making the incoherence and fragmentation of contemporary history intelligible.</p> Introduction: History Happens, Sobchack Vivian; Part 1 The Historical Event; Chapter 1 The Modernist Event, Hayden White; Chapter 2 Cinematic Shots: The Narration of Violence, Janet Staiger; Chapter 3 Historical Consciousness And The Viewer: Who Killed Vincent Chin?, Bill Nichols; Chapter 4 “I'll See It When I Believe It”: Rodney King And The Prison-House Of Video, Frank P. Tomasulo; Part 2 Historical Representation And National Identity; Chapter 5 Antimodernism As Historical Representation In A Consumer Culture: Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments, 1923, 1956, 1993, Sumiko Higashi; Chapter 6 Modernism And The Narrative Of Nation In JFK, Robert Burgoyne; Chapter 7 Andrei Rublev: The Medieval Epic As Post-Utopian History, Denise J. Youngblood; Chapter 8 Subject Positions, Speaking Positions: From Holocaust, Our Hitler, And Heimat To Shoah And Schindler's List, Thomas Elsaesser; Part 3 The End(s) Of History; Chapter 9 Historical Ennui, Feminist Boredom, Patrice Petro; Chapter 10 The Future Of The Past: Film And The Beginnings Of Postmodern History, Roberta A. Rosenstone; Chapter 11 Interrotroning History: Errol Morris And The Documentary Of The Future, Rosenheim Shawn; Chapter 12 The Professors Of History, Dana Polan;