ABOUT THIS BOOK

Spaces of Communication offers a concise introduction to semiopragmatics and condenses the intellectual trajectory of one of the foundational figures of film studies into a relatively short and accessible volume. It testifies to the author’s deep and rich intellectual engagement with a vast array of objects ranging from the classics of the cinephile canon to television news programs, home movies and mobile phone films.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Roger Odin is emeritus professor of Communication at Paris 3 University; Head of the Film and Audiovisual Institute (1983-2003); Theorist of the semio-pragmatic approach (De la fiction, 2000; Les Espaces de Communication, 2011).

REVIEWS

"It is hard to believe that it has taken almost forty years for Roger Odin’s semio-pragmatic approach to finally become accessible in a book for the English-speaking world. Long before the post-cinema debate, Roger Odin started to theorize the many facets of film beyond the theatrical motion picture. Immensely productive particularly with a view to the current transformations of film, Odin’s film theory continues to question and subvert established distinctions: between disciplines and theoretical schools, but also between legitimate and illegitimate objects."
– Alexandra Schneider, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz

"With scientific rigor and academic generosity, Roger Odin discloses the analytical machine that underpins his semio-pragmatic approach. Readers not only enjoy a wide breadth of examples, but also witness the trial-and-error approach that ensured the success of semio-pragmatics. At once a methodological synthesis and a balance of intellectual achievement, this book promotes an integral method for analyzing film as a communicative apparatus."
– Francesco Casetti, Yale University

TABLE OF CONTENTS