Cinéma et théories de la réception

Broadly speaking, reception studies—in which defining audiences and readers has always been a moot point—have mainly focused on the way reception is determined either by the structure of a work of art, or by the historical and cultural context of reception, or by the individual characteristics of the readers or spectators. The present study tries to take stock of the current research on the topic, and to open new vistas on reception, and on the way it evolves and determines our relationship to art. The essays herein gathered deal with cinema mostly, but also with literature, and endeavor to combine critical outlooks which have often been deemed incompatible, whether they are related to a textual approach (bent on analyzing the formal aspects of a work), to the special relation we entertain as spectators with a film, to the analysis and evolution of critical discourse, or to the relation and mutual influence of both mediums. Each contribution seeks to open the way for a comparison and combination of critical methods that are otherwise usually separated.