[KineJapan] Brushed in Light: Calligraphy in East Asian Cinema

Wed Mar 31 14:26:55 EDT 2021

Thank you so much Markus. And I love that it is covering all five East
Asian cinemas that I love so much.

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 2:10 PM LCE via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> It's an excellent idea for a book, Markus. Thank you.
>
> On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 12:20 PM Markus Nornes via KineJapan <
> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>
>> Oh, you beat me to it, Aaron!  (The book's online version database is
>> something of a work in progress, so I was waiting for an update to the
>> keywords before announcing the book!)
>>
>> So this book sat on a back burner for over 30 years. Back in grad school
>> at USC, I was eagerly watching every East Asian film I could get my hands
>> on—at Chinatown and Little Tokyo theaters, Koreatown and Monterey Park
>> supermarket videos, 16mm prints borrowed from the South Korean and
>> Taiwanese consulates, art house retrospectives, the few VHS tapes on home
>> video. I've always been fascinated by the relationship of text and screen,
>> and couldn't help notice the wonderful ubiquity of calligraphy in the
>> films. It was marvelous, lovely, and always creative (even when crude). For
>> me, it was one thing that set East Asian film apart—or held it together.
>>
>> At the time, I thought this could make an interesting dissertation. I
>> sheepishly spoke to a couple prominent Asian art historians. They almost
>> laughed at me—"There's no calligraphy in film!" (You can read the book to
>> find out their reasoning.) Long story short, they scared me off the topic
>> and I set it aside but never forgot about it.
>>
>> Then in 2008-9, the Reischauer Institute graciously hosted me for a year.
>> It was wonderful being around Stanley Cavell and David Rodowick—and
>> revisiting their work—and suddenly something clicked. I figured out what I
>> wanted to say about the cinematographic calligraph and moved the project to
>> the front burner.
>>
>> I immersed myself in the subject. I visited the props departments of most
>> of the major film studios. Talked to celebrated calligraphers. I quickly
>> found that directors had nothing interesting to say, but propsmen and art
>> directors and poster designers were brilliant and an absolute delight
>> to talk to. It was so fun to research I hated to finish the writing.
>>
>> But I did, and now it's out. It is open access at:
>> https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11373292
>>
>> But I hope you get the ($40) hard back paper version. I wanted a book as
>> beautiful as the subject matter, and the University of Michigan Press
>> delivered for sure. I love the squarish design, the 150+ color images. I
>> hope you can at least have your library order it.
>>
>> This was the first book I've ever written off a corpus. I was lucky to
>> have undergraduate research assistants help me make framegrabs from the
>> 30,000+ DVDs in our Donald Hall Collection. Students started at A and Z
>> respectively, and met in the middle. When they were done, we had over 2,800
>> images of calligraphy from Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, PRC and South Korea.
>>
>> *And ALL of them are online*, and thoroughly linked to the online
>> version of the book (click the "*Resources*
>> <https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/4t64gq206#resources>" button
>> to go straight into the image database). In some regards, I think it
>> stretches the limits of the open access book. (Like I said, it's a work in
>> progress. The captions and keywords are being updated little by little.
>> This has been a huge project...)
>>
>> I've depended on so many people in the course of research and writing.
>> Many of you are on KineJapan. I'm so grateful to you all.
>>
>> Hope you enjoy the book!
>>
>> Markus
>>
>> ---
>>
>> *Markus Nornes*
>> *Professor of Asian Cinema*
>> Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian Languages
>> and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
>>
>> *Department of Film, Television and Media*
>> *6348 North Quad*
>> *105 S. State Street
>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/105+S.+State+Street+Ann+Arbor,+MI+48109-1285?entry=gmail&source=g>*
>> *Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/105+S.+State+Street+Ann+Arbor,+MI+48109-1285?entry=gmail&source=g>*
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 8:45 AM Gerow Aaron via KineJapan <
>> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Markus Nornes’s new book Brushed in Light: Calligraphy in East Asian
>>> Cinema, published by the University of Michigan Press, seems to now be
>>> available! You can download it for free from Fulcrum:
>>>
>>> https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/4t64gq206
>>>
>>> Here is the blurb:
>>>
>>> Drawing on a millennia of calligraphy theory and history, Brushed in
>>> Light examines how the brushed word appears in films and in film cultures
>>> of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and PRC cinemas. This includes silent
>>> era intertitles, subtitles, title frames, letters, graffiti, end titles,
>>> and props. Markus Nornes also looks at the role of calligraphy in film
>>> culture at large, from gifts to correspondence to advertising. The book
>>> begins with a historical dimension, tracking how calligraphy is initially
>>> used in early cinema and how it is continually rearticulated by
>>> transforming conventions and the integration of new technologies. These
>>> chapters ask how calligraphy creates new meaning in cinema and demonstrate
>>> how calligraphy, cinematography, and acting work together in a single film.
>>> The last part of the book moves to other regions of theory. Nornes explores
>>> the cinematization of the handwritten word and explores how calligraphers
>>> understand their own work.
>>>
>>> The online version is full of links to images, so you should check that
>>> out. But the hardbound book has the best images, so please have your
>>> library order it if you can.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Aaron Gerow
>>> Professor
>>> Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
>>> Chair, East Asian Languages and Literatures
>>> Yale University
>>> 320 York Street, Room 108
>>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/320+York+Street,+Room+108?entry=gmail&source=g>
>>> PO Box 208201
>>> New Haven, CT 06520-8201
>>> USA
>>> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
>>> Fax: 1-203-432-6729
>>> e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
>>> website: www.aarongerow.com
>>>
>>>
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