The IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film
Volume 3 – Issue – I

The IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film
Volume 3 – Issue – I

The IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film
Volume 3 – Issue – I

This paper discusses the relation between film theory, subject and the idea of community
building. I will give a detailed understanding of how both theoretical perspectives in film
studies as well as the artistic practice of film making try to rethink new ways of possibility of
being together. I will argue that the current approach of contemporary political film studies is
to reconstruct/redefine the concept of subject and community building that was either
deconstructed, mistakenly or wrongly rejected, by the modern and postmodern theorists. In my
studies I will not only rethink the possible political and philosophical approach to new
theoretical studies of film from the perspective of subject and forms of community, but also
show how the history of film theory (or art theory in general) should be rewritten in such a
manner. For my methodology I will be using a combination of concepts coined by
contemporary philosophers that question historical divisions of Modern/Postmodern, High
Art/Popular Art, Reality/Fiction, etc. This paper is primarily concerned with the theories of
Jacques Rancière but is also inspired by Giorgio Agamben, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan and
Alain Badiou. All of these theorists have offered new approaches to understanding how art
expresses political concerns about the notion of subject and community, and while not all of
them focused on art, film or aesthetics, their ideas can be easily applied to this domain.

Keywords: Film theory, art theory, history of art, subject and community, postmodernism,
Jacques Rancière, political aesthetics

James Rowlins