An important series which takes full account of contemporary literary theory, providing collections of key modern readings of major authors, genres and critical approaches. Film and the theory of film provides a unique understanding of twentieth century life in the West. A judicious selection from key work by Stephen Heath, Fredric Jameson, Laura Mulvey, Mary Ann Doane, and others, representing the most important contemporary writing about film. Discusses how film theory has been influenced by the writings of Saussure, Freud, Lacan, Althusser, Derrida and Kristeva and how, since 1968, it has been concerned not so much with theme and content as the deeper question of how the film text works or operates on its viewer. Shows how film theory brings together three key areas as a result: modes of textual analysis, developed by linguistics and semiology; a Marxist account of ideology; theories of subjectivity, spectatorship and gender.