Abstract
This free-form essay reflects on the historiography of early cinema from W. K. L. Dickson’s early accounts to the 1978 Brighton FIAF Conference on Cinema 1900-1906, which brought together young scholars and veteran archivist in a congenial, collaborative setting. It examines the contemporary moment in which its study has been expanded and institutionalized within academia, characterized by numerous biennial conferences and yearly gatherings such as the Giornate del Cinema Muto. Tied to this are debates about the relationship of broad historiographic characterizations to sustained, in-depth research. Historians continue to disagree about the rise and dominance of story films, and this essay investigates the nature of evaluative criteria and the kind of theoretical models that they deployed. Finally, it reflects on recent historiographic trends that move beyond these narrow concerns with the economic engine that produced rapidly changing film practices to questions of race and gender––and most recent uses of counterfactual speculations to shake up.
Recommended Citation
Musser, Charles
(2024)
"Early Cinema and the Historiographic Impulse: Scholarly Positionality Then and Now,"
The Journal of e-Media Studies: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1938-6060.A.497
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/joems/vol7/iss1/3
Figure 1. Composite frames from Edison's Life of An American Fireman (1903).
Figure 2. Photograph of Brighton attendees.jpg (94 kB)
Figure 2. Photograph of Brighton attendees. From left to right: Tom Gunning, John Gartenberg, André Gaudreault, Esther Pelletier, and Jan-Christopher Horak.
Figure 3. Frame enlargement from Porter's Life of a Cowboy (1906).png (1885 kB)
Figure 3. Frame enlargement from Porter's Life of a Cowboy (1906).
Figure 4. Frames from Biograph Picture Catalog (1896).png (1110 kB)
Figure 4. Frames from Biograph Picture Catalog (1896).
Figure 5. Page 1 of Price List of Edison’s Marvelous Projectoscope and Edison Photographic Films for Use on Kinetoscopes and Projecting Machines Made by the Edison Manufacturing Co.png (962 kB)
Figure 5. Page 1 of Price List of Edison’s Marvelous Projectoscope and Edison Photographic Films for Use on Kinetoscopes and Projecting Machines Made by the Edison Manufacturing Co.
Figure 6. Page 2 from Price List of Edison’s Marvelous Projectoscope and Edison Photographic Films for Use on Kinetoscopes and Projecting Machines Made by the Edison Manufacturing Co.png (700 kB)
Figure 6. Page 2 from Price List of Edison’s Marvelous Projectoscope and Edison Photographic Films for Use on Kinetoscopes and Projecting Machines Made by the Edison Manufacturing Co.
Figure 7. Page 5 from Price List of Edison’s Marvelous Projectoscope and Edison Photographic Films for Use on Kinetoscopes and Projecting Machines Made by the Edison Manufacturing Co.png (1125 kB)
Figure 7. Page 5 from Price List of Edison’s Marvelous Projectoscope and Edison Photographic Films for Use on Kinetoscopes and Projecting Machines Made by the Edison Manufacturing Co.
Figure 5. Advertisement for The Battle of the Somme.png (1844 kB)
Figure 5. Advertisement for The Battle of the Somme: Motion Picture News, 2 December 1916.