2021
88 minutes (includes the lecture and afterword)
978-1-893521-06-3
![This film has subtitles]()
English
Stuart Hall: Through the Prism of an Intellectual Life
Synopsis
In this recently discovered, newly restored video of one of Stuart Hall’s most famous lectures, Hall speaks with dazzling precision about the responsibilities of intellectuals and educators in the face of undemocratic structures of power, injustice, racism, and inequality, and lays out in the clearest possible terms a theoretical framework for dissecting and resisting authoritarian thinking without lapsing into reductive ideological simplifications. Includes an afterword with Brian Meeks, Chair of Africana Studies at Brown University
Release Date: 2021
Duration:88 minutes (includes the lecture and afterword)
ISBN:978-1-893521-06-3
Subtitles:English
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Praise
"Stuart Hall was always a uniquely gifted lecturer, but he never spoke more eloquently than he does in this magnificent talk, given at a crucial biographical moment for him, on a late return to the Caribbean. We see and hear him in an inspirational mood, weaving together an astonishingly fluent synthesis of the key ideas from all the different stages of his work. Here is that astonishing combination of personal warmth, rhetorical splendor and intellectual seriousness which characterized his manner – which is so engaging as to make one want to stand up and join in the ovation he receives at the lecture’s end."
David Morley
Emeritus Professor, Goldsmiths, University of London
Emeritus Professor, Goldsmiths, University of London
"Here we see a stunning (and exemplary) display of Stuart’s brilliant ability to move between the theoretical and the often-quotidian examples he would use to illustrate theory, and make it more clear. With virtually no notes and barely a pause, Stuart offers, by turns, an astute, dexterous, probing and, as always, humble disquisition about the relationship between biography and intellectual work. His reflections on the processes—the work, the struggles, the misrecognitions—that go into thinking are inspiring and comforting. For those of us who have always thought that hearing Stuart speak brought his written work to life, and who deeply miss, still, his brilliance and his humanity, Through the Prism of an Intellectual Life is a blessing. This tour de force is a must-watch."
Susan J. Douglas
Professor of Communication Studies, University of Michigan
Professor of Communication Studies, University of Michigan
"What a phenomenal gift! This recording of Stuart Hall’s talk at the Caribbean Reasonings conference offers us exceptional insight into the person, the politics, the method, the vision, and their profound interconnectedness. Those who already know his work will be awe-struck, and those for whom this serves as an introduction will surely want more."
Angela Y. Davis
Political Activist, Philosopher, and Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz
Political Activist, Philosopher, and Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz