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The New-Wave Cinema

Evolution of Society’s Art System

The New-Wave Cinema cover

The New-Wave Cinema

Evolution of Society’s Art System

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Pre-order. Available 11 Jun 2026
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Description

This book introduces a novel conceptualization of “new-wave cinema” as a borderless phenomenon, akin to a “wave” that crashes upon established film aesthetics in a certain society. Using Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, the book explores the correlation between the rise of new-wave cinema and the societal conflicts contemporaneous with its inception.

The term “new-wave cinema,” historically attributed by film critics to specific film collections within different societies, has lacked universal applicability in film scholarship. This book identifies the defining criterion of the new wave not solely within its specific aesthetics but in the transformative “break” that these aesthetic properties effectuate upon the prevailing filmic communication. This “break” extends beyond singular films, manifesting within a substantial cohort, thereby justifying the label “wave.” Notably, this “wave” does not materialize as a result of a collective decision by filmmakers but rather in correlation with the societal “contradictions and conflicts” prevailing during the emergence of new-wave films.

This book delineates how the resonance of societal contradictions and conflicts in films, as a subsystem of art, can catalyze three different reactions to existing aesthetic and narrative traditions, thereby giving birth to new cinematic waves. The analysis concentrates on three paradigmatic new-wave cinemas spanning three continents, namely New German Cinema, New Hollywood, and New Iranian Cinema, illustrating the universality of its thesis despite the aesthetic differences among the cinematic movements commonly labeled as “new wave” in film scholarship.

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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part 1: A Systems-Theoretical Perspective on Film
1.1. Introduction to Systems Theory of Society
1.2. Film as a Subsystem of Art

Part 2: The Wave-Like Evolution of Film Art
2.1. New German Cinema
2.2. New Hollywood
2.3. New Iranian Cinema

Conclusion

References
Filmography
Notes
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 11 Jun 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 272
ISBN 9798765125144
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 61 bw illus + 3 line drawings
Series Thinking Media
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Golnaz Sarkar-Farshi

Golnaz Sarkar-Farshi is Senior Lecturer at the Uni…

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