{"product_id":"the-prop-paperback-softback-9781531509613","title":"The Prop (Paperback \/ softback) 9781531509613","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Prop\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eElena Gorfinkel (Author), John David Rhodes (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781531509613\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 4 March 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e176 pages, 9 b\/w illustrations\u003cbr\u003e17.8 x 12.7 x 1 cm, 0.158 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat are film props? What do they do? This book answers these questions by a close attention to those material objects that are used to construct cinematic worlds. \u003cbr\u003e The term \"prop\" is short for property. This truncated term's etymology belies the expansiveness of the concept and indicates the micro and macro scales at which the prop operates. Props are the material—often literal—furniture of cinema's diegetic reality. Props are also narrative agents: think of the animacy of objects in Jean Epstein's account of \u003ci\u003ephotogénie\u003c\/i\u003e, the crystal egg in \u003ci\u003eRisky Business\u003c\/i\u003e, or the domestic bric-à-brac of Sirk's melodramas. The prop is central to production design and the construction of mise-en-scène. And yet, the prop has rarely—almost never—been taken as an object of analysis and theorization in its own right. \u003cbr\u003e This book begins by tracing the prop's curious but unacknowledged role in film theory, before proceeding to a series of theoretical speculations and close readings that bring the prop into focus. Analyses of scenes of \"prop mastery\" demonstrate the labor that props perform and enable, as well as the interpretive work they make possible. Across a variety of genres, modes, and historical contexts—studio filmmaking, art cinema, adult and avant-garde films—\u003ci\u003eThe Prop\u003c\/i\u003e introduces readers to the notion of \"prop value,\" a quality that puts the prop in proximity to the capitalist commodity, but also provides an ironic distance from the commodity's subjection to exchange value. Gorfinkel and Rhodes argue that the prop is nothing less than a condensation of how labor, subjection, value, and instrumentality underwrite the very conditions of cinema.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1. \u003c\/b\u003eA Strand of Rope   1\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e2. \u003c\/b\u003eReading for the Prop   13\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e3.\u003c\/b\u003e Prop Value   32\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e4. \u003c\/b\u003eRealism, or the Prop's Thereness   53\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e5.\u003c\/b\u003e The Prop and the Performer   80\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e6. \u003c\/b\u003eModalities of the Prop beyond the Studio   95\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eCoda\u003c\/b\u003e: Golden Rain Tree   115\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTheses on the Prop\u003c\/i\u003e   119\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c\/i\u003e   125\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNotes \u003c\/i\u003e  127\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eList of Figures\u003c\/i\u003e   137\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndex \u003c\/i\u003e  139\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52521070657816,"sku":"9781531509613","price":13.48,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-prop-paperback-softback-9781531509613","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}