An original and wide-ranging study of the mappings used to impose meaning on the world. MAPPING REALITY argues that maps create rather than merely represent the ground on which they rest. Distinctions between map and territory, questioned by some theorists of the postmodern, are found always to have been arbitrary. The subordination of one to the other is seen as the outcome of an ideology imposed on a more complex reality by a series of Western imperial mappings.

The independent sector has produced many of the most distinctive films to have appeared in the US in recent decades. From 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' in the 1980s to 'The Blair Witch Project' and New Queer Cinema in the 1990s and the ultra-low budget digital video features of the 2000s, indie films have thrived, creating a body of work that stands out from the dominant Hollywood mainstream. But what exactly is 'independent' cinema? This, the first book to examine the question in detail, argues that independence can be defined partly in industry terms but also according to formal and aesthetic...

What exactly is 'independent' cinema? This book argues that independence can be defined partly in industry terms but also according to formal and aesthetic strategies and by distinctive attitudes towards social and political issues, suggesting that indepen