The Cinema of Mika Kaurismäki: Transvergent Cinescapes, Emergent Identities

Citation

Kaapa P (2011) The Cinema of Mika Kaurismäki: Transvergent Cinescapes, Emergent Identities. Bristol: Intellect. http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Book,id=4745/

Abstract
Mika Kaurismäki's films challenge many boundaries - national societies, genre formations, art/popular culture, fiction/documentary, humanity/nature, and problematic distinctions between different zones of development. Synthesizing concepts from a range of thematic frameworks - e.g. auteurism, eco-philosophy, genre, cartography, cineaste networks, global reception, distribution and exhibition practices, and the potential of postnationalism - this book provides an interdisciplinary reading of Kaurismäki's cinema. The notion of ‘transvergence' - of thinking in heterogeneous and polyphonal terms - emerges as an analytical method for exploring the power of these films. Through this, the volume encourages rethinking transnational cinema studies in relation to many oft-debated notions such as Finnish culture, European identity, cosmopolitanism and globalization.