Cinema, Culture, Scotland - by Colin McArthur (Paperback)

About the Book

Anthologises key works from the oeuvre of Colin McArthur, a pioneering critic within Anglophone film and Scottish cultural studies.

Book Synopsis

This book anthologises selected key works from the oeuvre of Colin McArthur, a pioneering figure within Anglophone Film and Scottish cultural studies since the 1960s.
Collecting together thirty-seven essays written between 1966 and 2022, twenty-one of which were hitherto out-of-print, the book identifies and illustrates the central strands of scholarly interest that have defined one of British Film Studies and Scottish Cultural Studies' most influential careers: critical investigation and legitimisation of mid-twentieth-century Hollywood cinema and popular American film genres; the cinematic representation of Scotland and the gradual development of a Scottish film production sector; and Scotland's status as a distinctive visual and material cultural signifier within a diverse range of international popular cultures from the eighteenth century to the present.

Review Quotes

Cinema, Culture, Scotland is an autobiography of ideas by a pioneering, deeply committed writer on film and the wider culture, from angry young man to internationally recognised authority; it is also a history of English-speaking Film Studies since the mid-1960s by one of the discipline's key contributors. Much more than a 'legacy' volume set in stone, it should be a continuing inspiration to new generations of writers, thinkers and practitioners who take film seriously.

--Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Former Rector of the Royal College of Art and Chair of Arts Council England; Award-winning Writer and Broadcaster

Ranging from pioneering analyses of popular American cinema to ground-breaking studies of the representation of Scotland in visual and material culture, Colin McArthur's writings have always, from the 1960s to the present day, constituted major interventions in their fields. It is thus particularly welcome that some of the finest examples are now readily accessible, and in such a diligently edited collection.

--Professor Julian Petley, Brunel University

A major achievement of the new collection of essays assembled by the editor Jonathan Murray is that it brings together in one place a wide range of published work from longform monographs to short film reviews, much of it long unavailable or difficult to access.--Alex Law "Media Education Journal"

Colin McArthur is a rare writer to be cherished. This collection of 36 essays written between 1966 and 2020 plus an 'Afterword' represents McArthur's large body of work through careful selections that cover his different interests and approaches. [...] Anyone interested in Scottish film culture should read this book.--Editor "ITP Global Film Blog"

In a series of essays critiquing the film culture these institutions have promoted, [McArthur] excoriates their excessive emphasis on commercial success, their fetishisation of the form of storytelling favoured by American cinema, their pursuit of the mirage of a 'Hollywood on Clyde', and their marginalisation of culture.--Graeme Purves "Bella Caledonia"

This book adds to our understanding of [McArthur's] persistent, intelligent probing and its impact on Scottish culture. Jonathan Murray is to be thanked for putting the collection together.--David Manderson "The Bottle Imp"