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Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order

Understanding the American Avant-garde Cinema

James Peterson

Film Theory and Criticism

Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series

Paperback
Published: January 1994
ISBN: 9780814324578
Pages: 232 Size: 7x10
Illustrations: 190
$28.99

In spite of the difficulty of most American avant-garde films, one can read volumes and find almost no mention of how to view these films. Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order addresses precisely this question: how—and to what extent—can viewers make sense of American avant-garde films? It is a controversial book that examines the implicit assumptions of traditional scholarship, advocates on alternative to dominant approaches to the avant-garde cinema, and questions some long-standing clichés about the history of the avant-garde.

James Peterson is a writer and scholar living in Madison, Wisconsin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.