An authoritative and much-needed overview of the main issues in the field of early cinema from over 30 leading international scholars in the field

• First collection of its kind to offer in one reference: original theory, new research, and reviews of existing studies in the field
• Features over 30 original essays from some of the leading scholars in early cinema and Film Studies, including Tom Gunning, Jane Gaines, Richard Abel, Thomas Elsaesser, and Andre Gaudreault
• Caters to renewed interest in film studies' historical methods, with strict analysis of...

This volume brings together a wide range of explorations of the ways in which technological innovations have established new and changing conditions for the experience and study of film. The book offers analyses by such leading figures in film studies as Tom Gunning and Charles Musser, who examine the ways in which technological changes have altered the ways how cinema is conceived and how it is approached as an object of study. Contributors also look at the overlapping stages through which new experience is translated in institutionalized knowledge within the discipline.