Robert Stam
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Robert Stam (born October 29, 1941) is an American film theorist working on
film semiotics Film semiotics is the study of sign process (semiosis), or any form of activity, conduct, or any process that involves signs, including the production of meaning, as these signs pertain to moving pictures. Film semiotics is used for the interpre ...
. He is a professor at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, where he teaches about
French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
filmmakers. Stam has published widely on
French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...
,
comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...
, and on film topics such as film history and
film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...
. Together with
Ella Shohat Ella Habiba Shohat is a professor of cultural studies at New York University. She has written and lectured on the topics of Eurocentrism, orientalism, Postcolonialism, post-colonialism, Transnationalism, trans-nationalism, Diaspora, diasporic cult ...
, he co-authored ''Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media''.


Early life and education

Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Stam completed his Ph.D. in
Comparative Literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...
at U.C. Berkeley in 1977, after which he went directly to New York University, where he has been teaching ever since. Stam's graduate work ranged across Anglo-American literature, French and Francophone literature, and Luso-Brazilian literature. His dissertation was published as a book, ''Reflexivity in Film and Literature'' (1985).


Career

Stam has authored, co-authored and edited some seventeen books on film and
cultural theory Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rela ...
, literature and film, national cinema (French and Brazilian), aesthetic and politics, intellectual history, and comparative race studies and postcolonial studies. With work that has ranged across a number of different fields, Stam has participated in a number of post-structuralist and postcolonial “turns” within film and cultural studies. A 1983 ''Screen'' essay “Colonialism, Racism, and Representation” brought post-structuralist theory to bear on issues of representations of colonial history and racial oppression. Attempting to go beyond the methodological limitations of the then-dominant paradigm of “positive image” and “negative stereotype” analysis, Stam argued for an approach that emphasized not social accuracy or characterological merits but rather issues such as perspective, address, focalization, mediation, and the filmic orchestration of discourses.


Collaborations with Ella Shohat

The concern with issues of
colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
,
postcolonialism Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...
, race, and cultural difference also found expression in a number of seminal texts co-authored with
Ella Shohat Ella Habiba Shohat is a professor of cultural studies at New York University. She has written and lectured on the topics of Eurocentrism, orientalism, Postcolonialism, post-colonialism, Transnationalism, trans-nationalism, Diaspora, diasporic cult ...
. Their 1985 ''Screen'' essay “The Cinema After Babel: Language, Difference, Power,” introduced a Bakhtinian “translinguistic” and trans-structuralist turn into the study of language difference, translation, and postsynchronization in the cinema. Their ''Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media'' (Routledge, 1994) formed part of and helped shape the surge of writing about race, colonialism, identity politics, and postcoloniality in the 1990s.
Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...
''Unthinking Eurocentrism'' a “brilliant” and landmark book". The book combines two strands of work – an ambitious study of colonialist discourse and
Eurocentrism Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) refers to viewing Western world, the West as the center of world events or superior to other cultures. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western world to just the con ...
– and a comprehensive and transnational study of cinematic texts related to those issues. One feature, which came to characterize all of the Stam-Shohat collaborations was looking at theses issues within a longue timespan by placing the various "1492s" (i.e. the Inquisition against Jews, the expulsion of the Muslims, the conquest of the Americas, TransAtlantic slavery) at the center of the debates. A related strategy was to stress the centrality of Indigenous peoples for the history of radical thought and resistance in the Atlantic world, which they began in their 2006 book ''Flagging Patriotism'' to call the “Red Atlantic.” ''Unthinking Eurocentrism'' addressed such issues as “Eurocentrism versus Polycentrism,” “Formations of Colonialist Discourse,” “The Imperial Imaginary,” “Tropes of Empire,” the “Esthetics of Resistance,” “postcolonial hybridity,” and “indigenous media.” (A updated, 20th anniversary edition was published in 2014.) Stam and Shohat continued with an anthology entitled ''Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media'' (Rutgers, 2003); followed by a more political polemic which excoriated the militaristic pseudo-patriotism of the George Bush/
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
period -- ''Flagging Patriotism: Crises in Narcissism and Anti-Americanism'' (Routledge, 2006). ''Race in Translation: Culture Wars Around the Postcolonial Atlantic'' (NYU, 2012), finally, dealt with the postwar debates about colonialism, postcoloniality, race, multiculture and
Affirmative Action Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...
in three cultural zones—the U.S., and Anglophone zone,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and the
Francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...
zone, and
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
and the
Lusophone The Portuguese-speaking world, also known as the Lusophone world () or the Lusophony (''Lusofonia''), comprises the countries and territories in which the Portuguese language is an official, administrative, cultural, or secondary language. This ...
zone. Contesting the monolingual and Anglo-Americano-centric approach to these issues, the book elaborates such concepts as “the seismic shift” provoked by the decolonization of culture, the radicalization of the academic disciplines, the philosophical centrality of indigenous thought, the “left/right” convergence on identity politics, and “inter-colonial narcissism.”


Adaptation studies

Stam has also been a major figure within the “transtextual turn” in adaptation and intertextuality studies. Stam's later work in literature and film formed part of and helped advance the field of adaptation studies, which has been undergoing a boom since the turn of the 21st century. Stam's essay “Beyond Fidelity,” included in the James Naremore 1999 anthology ''Film Adaptation'', called for a larger paradigm shift in which authors like Naremore, Dudley Andrews, Kamilla Elliot, Deborah Cartmell, Imelda Whelehan, Thomas Leitch, Jack Boozer, Christine Geraghty, Alessandra Raengo, and
Linda Hutcheon Linda Hutcheon, FRSC, OC (born August 24, 1947) is a Canadian academic working in the fields of literary theory and criticism, opera, and Canadian studies. She is a University Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and of the Centre f ...
moved from a binary novel-film fidelity approach to a more open transtextual approach. The interest in film-literature relations culminated in two monographs and two anthologies. ''Literature through Film: Realism, Magic, and the Art of Adaptation'' (Blackwell, 2005) offered a historicized account of key trends in the history of the novel – the proto-magic realism of a Cervantes, the colonialist realism of a Defoe (and his critics), the parodic reflexivity of a
Henry Fielding Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English writer and magistrate known for the use of humour and satire in his works. His 1749 comic novel ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'' was a seminal work in the genre. Along wi ...
or
Machado de Assis Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (), often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, ''Machado,'' or ''Bruxo do Cosme Velho''Vainfas, p. 505. (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian people, Brazilian novelist, poet, playwr ...
, or proto-cinematic perspectivalism of a Flaubert, the neurotic narrators of a Dostoyevsky or a Nabokov, the feminist experimentations of Clarice Lispector and
Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...
, and the “marvelous latin-american real” of Mario de Andrade and Alejo Carpentier, all as seen through the many filmic adaptations – both “faithful” and revisionist – of their work. ''Francois Truffaut and Friends: Modernism, Sexuality, and Adaptation'' (Rutgers, 2006), meanwhile, explored the “transtextual diaspora” generated by a highly literary ménage-a-trois in the 1920s that led to the books and published journals of Henri-Pierre Roche, Franz Hessel and Helen Hessel, as well as three films by Truffaut based on the life and work of Roche ('' Jules and Jim'', ''Two Englishwomen'', and ''The Man Who Loved Women''). Two anthologies co-edited with Alessandra Raengo (both published by Blackwell) fleshed out the project: ''Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory'' and ''Practice of Adaptation'' (Blackwell, 2005), and ''Companion to Literature and Film'' (Blackwell, 2004).


Film theory and multiculturalism

Another field of intervention for Stam has been in cultural theory, especially in ''Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film'' (Johns Hopkins, 1989), the first book-length study to extrapolate for film and cultural studies Bakhtin's conceptual categories, such as “translinguistics” and “dialogism” and the “carnivalesque.” Stam has also been an advocate-exegete of
semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...
,
poststructuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of power. Although diffe ...
, and film theory in such books as ''New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Poststructuralism, and Beyond'' (Routledge, 1992) and ''Film Theory: An Introduction'' (Blackwell, 2000), the first book to recount the history of film theory from its beginnings to the present within a transnational framework that included Latin America, Africa and Asia alongside Europe and North America. ''Film Theory: An Introduction'' was published in tandem with two Blackwell anthologies co-edited with Toby Miller both from 2000: ''Film and Theory'' and ''A Companion to Film Theory''. Brazilian cinema, literature, and popular culture form another node in Stam's research. He co-edited ''Brazilian Cinema'' (1982) with Randal Johnson. ''Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture'' (Duke, 1997) offered the first book-length study in English of racial representation, especially of
Afro-Brazilians Afro-Brazilians (; ), also known as Black Brazilians (), are Brazilians of total or predominantly Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Most multiracial Brazilians also have a range of degree of African ancestry. Brazilians whose African features are mo ...
, during the century of Brazilian Cinema, within a comparative framework in relation to similar issues in American cinema.


Awards and honors

Stam has won Woodrow Wilson, NDEA, Rockefeller, Fulbright, and Guggenheim Fellowships. In 2009, he was named a Fellow at the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton, where he presented a paper on "The Red Atlantic". In 2006, he co-taught (with Ella Shohat) a seminar on "The Culture Wars in Translation" at Cornell's Society for Criticism and Theory. In 2003, Stam was honored at the Curitiba Film Festival for his "Noteworthy Service to Brazilian Cinema". In 2002, he was named “University Professor” at New York University, the institutions highest honor. In 1998: Honored by Africana Studies "Evening of Readings from Recently Published Work by Critically Acclaimed Authors" In 1995: a panel was dedicated to ''Unthinking Eurocentrism'' as opening for series of book-related events at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. ''Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media'' (co-authored with Ella Shohat) won the Katherine Singer Kovács "Best Film Book" Award in 1994. Stam's ''Subversive Pleasures; Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism and Film'' was a Choice "Outstanding Academic Book of the Year" in 1989 and Runner-Up for the Katherine Singer Kovács "Best Film Book" Award in the same year.


Selected publications


Books


''Indigeneity and the Decolonizing Gaze: Transnational Imaginaries, Media Aesthetics, and Social Thought'' (Bloomsbury, 2023)

''Keywords in Subversive Film / Media Aesthetics'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015)

''Race in Translation: Culture Wars in the Postcolonial Atlantic'' (Routledge, 2012)
coauthored with Ella Shohat
''Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism'' (Routledge, 2006)
coauthored with Ella Shohat

* ttp://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-140510287X.html ''Literature through Film: Realism, Magic and the Art of Adaptation'' (Blackwell, 2005)
''Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation'' (Blackwell, 2005)






coauthored with Ella Shohat

coedited with Toby Miller
''Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture'' (Duke, 1997)

''Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media'' (Routledge, 1994)
coauthored with Ella Shohat * ''Bakhtin'' (Attica 1992)
''New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Post-Structuralism and Beyond'' (Routledge, 1992)

S''ubversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism and Film'' (Johns Hopkins, 1989)
* ''Reflexivity in Film and Literature'' (UMI Press, 1985) * ''Brazilian Cinema'' (Associated University Presses, 1982) * ''O Espetáculo Interrompido (The Interrupted Spectacle)'' in Portuguese (Paze e Terra, 1981)


Articles


"Hitchcock and Buñuel: Authority, Desire and the Absurd,"
in Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick, eds. ''Hitchcock's Rereleased Films'' (Detroit:Wayne State, 1991).
Mobilizing Fictions: The Gulf War, the Media and the Recruitment of the Spectator
" ''Public Culture'' Vol.4, No.2 (Spring 1992).
From Hybridity to the Aesthetics of Garbage
" ''Social Identities'', Vol. 3, No. 2 (1997)
Transnationalizing Comparison: The Uses and Abuses of Cross-Cultural Analogy
" co-written with Ella Shohat. ''New Literary History'', Vol. 40, No. 3 (Summer 2009)
The Cinema after Babel: Language, Difference and Power
" ''Screen,'' Vol. XXVI, Nos. 3-4 (May- Aug 1985).
Colonialism, Racism and Representation
" ''Screen'', Vol. XXIV, No. 2(Mar/April 1983).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stam, Robert 1941 births Living people Film theorists New York University faculty Place of birth missing (living people)