Cinema, Democracy and Perfectionism: Joshua Foa Dienstag in Dialogue

In Cinema, democracy and perfectionism Joshua Foa Dienstag engages in a critical encounter with the work of Stanley Cavell on cinema, focusing skeptical attention on the claims made for the contribution of cinema to the ethical character of democratic life.

Invoking and reworking the celebrated dialogue between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Jean D'Alembert on theatre, Dienstag's provocative and stylish essay is both a critical homage to Cavell's work and a strikingly original argument concerning the medium of film and its relationship to its audience.

The essay builds on Dienstag's well known work on narrative and political theory. It is followed by critical responses from an exceptional group of interlocutors. The volume concludes with a robust response from Dienstag to his critics.

LEAD AUTHOR
Joshua Foa Dienstag is Professor of Political Science and Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Dancing in Chains: Narrative Theory and Memory in Political Theory (1997) and Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit (2006).

INTERLOCUTORS
Tracy B. Strong, University of Southampton and University of California, San Diego
Thomas Dumm, Amherst College
Margaret Kohn, University of Toronto
Davide Panagia, University of California, Los Angeles
Clare Woodford, University of Brighton