Window Shopping. Cinema and the Postmodern

Departing from those who define postmodernism in film merely as a visual
style or set of narrative conventions, Anne Friedberg develops the
first sustained account of the cinema's role in postmodern culture. She
explores the ways in which nineteenth-century visual
experiences—photography, urban strolling, panorama and diorama
entertainments—anticipate contemporary pleasures provided by cinema,
video, shopping malls, and emerging "virtual reality" technologies.
Comparing
the visual practices of shopping, tourism, and film-viewing, Friedberg
identifies the experience of "virtual" mobility through time and space
as a key determinant of postmodern cultural identity. Evaluating the
theories of Jameson, Lyotard, Baudrillard, and others, she adds critical
insights about the role of gender and gender mobility in the
configurations of consumer culture.
A strikingly original work, Window Shopping challenges many of the existing assumptions about what exactly postmodern is. This book marks the emergence of a compelling new voice in the study of contemporary culture.