Angelos Koutsourakis
Position: University Academic Fellow in World Cinemas
Areas of expertise: film theory, world cinema, modernism, cinema and other arts, politics and representation, film-philosophy
Email: A.Koutsourakis@leeds.ac.uk
Location: 2.14a Michael Sadler Building
Website: academia.edu | Googlescholar
I am a University Academic Fellow in World Cinema at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, which is based at the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies.
I completed my PhD at the University of Sussex in 2012. Between 2012-2016, I held postdoctoral fellowships in Australia at the Universities of New South Wales and Queensland. I joined Leeds in January 2017.
I still maintain research links in Australia and hold an honorary research fellowship at the University of Queensland.
I have served as Subject Research Leader and PGR tutor for the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures (2017- 2019).
My research is at the interface of film theory, World cinema, modernism, and politics and representation. I have a particular interest in early film theory and the ways that it can help us rethink present debates.
I am the author of Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018), and of Politics as Form in Lars von Trier: A Post-Brechtian Reading (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013, paperback in 2015). I have also co-edited (with Mark Steven) a book on The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015).
I am currently working with Thomas Austin (University of Sussex) on an edited collection titled Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press in 2020) , which addresses filmmakers' engagements with pressing social and political issues in Europe.
I have guest-edited an issue of Studies in European Cinema (2019) on European Cinema and Post-democracy and an issue of Image & Narrative (2016) on Artaud and Cruelty.
I am also working on two book-length projects. The first one investigates the idea of the Kafkaesque in World Cinema and the second one looks at the cinema of Konrad Wolf, one of the most esteemed DEFA filmmakers.
I welcome PhD proposals in areas related to any aspect of Film Theory, European Cinema in its historical, and political context, Global Cinema, Cinema and Modernism, Intermediality (Cinema and the other Arts), political cinema.
I have acted as a peer reviewer for these journals: New Review of Film and Television Studies, Film-Philosophy, Deleuze Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Studies in Popular Culture (American Culture Association in the South), Studies in European Cinema, Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Greek Media & Culture.
I have also acted as a reviewer for book proposals submitted to 1. Edinburgh University Press. 2. Bloomsbury Academic Publishers. 3. Palgrave Macmillan 4. Wallflower/Columbia University Press.
Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018). Paperback version forthcoming in August 2020.
Politics as Form in Lars von Trier: A Post-Brechtian Reading (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013). Reissued in paperback in 2015.
Reviewed in: 1. New Review of Film and Television Studies , 2. Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, 3. The Brecht Yearbook, 4. CINEJ Cinema Journal
Edited Books:
Thomas Austin, Angelos Koutsourakis (eds), Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020). In Press.
Koutsourakis, A., Steven M. (eds), The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015). Reviewed in: Journal of Greek Media & Culture 3:2 (2017), pp.287-289
Edited Journal:
Guest editor of Studies in European Cinema 16:3 (2019). European Cinema and Post-democracy
Guest Editor of Image and Narrative 17:5 (2016). Special Issue on Artaud & Cruelty.
'Epic Cinema: Defining our Terms', in Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 61: 2 (2022) (formerly Cinema Journal, SCMS). Forthcoming, accepted October 23, 2019. 12.000 words.
'Modernist Belatedness in Contemporary Slow Cinema', in Screen 60:3 (2019), pp.388-409.
'Introduction: European Cinema and Post-Democracy', Studies in European Cinema, 16:3, 173-180.
'Film Theory', The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 26 (2018), pp.1-18.
'Visualizing the Anthropocene Dialectically: Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens' Eco-Crisis Trilogy' in Film-Philosophy 21: 3 (2017): 299–325. (Shortlisted for the 2018 Film-Philosophy Article Award. It was considered by the judges to be among the most outstanding pieces of work from the 21 pieces published in Film-Philosophy).
'Film Theory', The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 25 (2017), pp. 1-18.
'From Binary to Rich Dialectics: The Revolt of the Fishermen and Mauser', in Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image 8 (2017), pp.32-50.
'The Ethics of Negation: the Postdramatic on Screen', in Substance: A Review of Theory and Literary Criticism 45:3 (2016), pp.155-173.
'Theatricality as Cruelty', in Image & Narrative 17(5) (2016) , pp.54-65.
'Introduction: Artaud and Cruelty', in Image & Narrative 17: 5, special issue "Artaud and Cruelty", pp.1-5.
'Film Theory', in The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 24 (2016), pp. 87-64.
'The Dialectics of Cruelty: Rethinking Artaudian Cinema', in Cinema Journal 55:3 (2016), pp.65-89.
'The Crisis of the Individual as a Precept of Political Cinema: Kuhle Wampe (1932) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947)', in Film Criticism 39:3 (2015), pp.26-47.
'Utilizing the Ideological Antiquity: Rethinking Brecht and Film Theory', in Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 107:2 (2015), pp.242-269.
'Politics and Open-ended Dialectics in Lars von Trier's Dogville: a Post-Brechtian Critique', in New Review of Film and Television Studies 11:3 (2013), pp.334-353.
'History as transition: Brecht's Historisierung in Straub/Huillet's Not Reconciled (1965) and Angelopoulos' The Hunters (1977)' in Studies in European Cinema 9 (2-3) (2013 published/ issued 2012), pp.169-179.
'Specters of Brecht in Dogme 95: Are Brecht and Realism Necessarily Antithetical?', in The Brecht Yearbook 37 (2012), pp.40-61.
'Cinema of the Body: The Politics of Performativity in Lars von Trier's Dogville and Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth', inCinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image 3 (2012), pp.84-108. Translated into Turkish in 2018,"Beden sinema: Lars Von Trier'nin "Dogville" ve Yorgos Lanthimos'un"Dogtooth"Filmlerinde. Edimsellik Politikasi", in Akademik Sosyal Arastirmalar Dergisi, Yil: 6, Sayi: 78, Eylül 2018, s. 649-663.
'"You want to Wake up to Free yourself of the Image of Europa. But it is not Possible". Lars von Trier's Critique of the European Narrative of Progress in his Europa trilogy', in Journal of Contemporary European Studies 20:4 (2012), pp.517-535.
'Great Directors: Shirley Clarke', in Senses of Cinema 65 (2012), available here.
'From Post-Brechtian Performance to Post-Brechtian Cinema: Shirley Clarke's adaptation of The Living Theatre's Production of The Connection', in International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 7:2 (2011), pp.141-154.
'The Persistence of Dialectics or the Desire for History in Lars von Trier's Europa and Theo Angelopoulos' The Suspended Step of the Stork, in Kinema: A Journal for Film and Audiovisual Media 33:1 (2010), pp. 93-106.
Book Chapters:
'Popular Theatricality in Spike Lee', forthcoming in Richard Rushton, Andrew Quick (eds), Theatricality and Interrelations between Art, Film and Theatre (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press). 8500 Words.
"Marx and Cinema", in Mark Steven (ed), Understanding Marx, Understanding Modernism (New York: Bloomsbury, 2020). In Press.
"The Resurgence of Modernism and its Critique of Liberalism in the Cinema of Crisis", in Thomas Austin, Angelos Koutsourakis (eds), Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020). In Press.
'The Cultural Techniques of Gesture in Aki Kaurismäki's Proletarian Trilogy', in Thomas Austin (ed) The Films of Aki Kaurismäki: Ludic Engagements (New York: Bloomsbury, 2018), pp.117-136.
'Cruelty and the real: the female figure in Orchidégartneren (1977), Menthe - la bienheureuse (1979) and Befrielsesbilleder (1982) ', in Rex Butler and David Denny (eds) Lars von Trier's Women (New York: Bloomsbury), pp.87-102.
'Realism is to Think Historically: Overlapping Elements in Lukácsian and Brechtian Theories of Realism', Ian Aitken (ed) The Major Realist Film Theorists: An Anthology (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), pp.123-138.
'John Cassavetes: The Ultimate Hero of American Independent Cinema', in John Berra (ed) Directory of World Cinema: American Independent 3 (Bristol: Intellect, 2016), pp.98-101.
'"The Gestus of Showing": Brecht, Tableau and Early Cinema in Angelopoulos' Political Period', in Koutsourakis, A., Steven, Mark, (eds) The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015), pp.64-79.
'Introduction: Angelopoulos and the Lingua Franca of Modernism', in Koutsourakis, A., Steven, Mark, (eds) The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015), pp.1-19.
'Brecht and Film', in Edward Branigan and Warren Buckland (eds) The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory(London & New York: Taylor & Francis, 2014), pp.63-68.
'Symptomatic Reading', in Edward Branigan and Warren Buckland (eds) The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory(London & New York: Taylor & Francis, 2014), pp.464-469.
Other Publications:
"Trauma and Memory: An Artist in Turmoil. On Konrad Wolf's The Naked Man on the Sports Field (1973)", DVD essay DEFA film Library The Naked Man on the Sports Field (1973), https://ecommerce.umass.edu/defa/film/4085.
"Go Back to the Source". Postscript to "The Dialectics of Cruelty: Rethinking Artaudian Cinema", available here.
Review Essay: Jussi Parika, A Geology of Media, in New Review of Film and Television Studies 14: 2 (2016), pp. 273-276.
'Political all the Way: the 62nd Sydney Film Festival', in Senses of Cinema 76, available here.
Review: Ian Aitken (2012), Lukácsian Film Theory and Cinema: A Study of Georg Lukács' Writing on Film 1913-1971, in Film-Philosophy 19 (2015), pp.19-24.
Review Essay: German Cinema—Terror and Trauma: Cultural Memory since 1945. Thomas Elsaesser, in Affirmations of the Modern 2:1 (2014), pp.155-164.
'Brecht Today: Interview with Alexander Kluge', in Film-Philosophy, 15:1 (2011), pp.220-228.
'Interview: Hal Hartley', in The Moving Arts Film Journal (2010), available here.
'John Cassavetes: The First Dogme Director?', in Bright Lights Film Journal 63 (2009) available here.
PhD, University of Sussex
MA, University College Dublin
BA, University of Athens
NECS
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
International Brecht Society
The Association of Adaptation Studies
Professional Teaching Qualifications: Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
PhD and MAR Supervision:
(50% with Paul Cooke) Laurence Carr. Thesis title: A Sonic Analysis of Silent Cinema: Weimar Cinema and Implied Sound. WRoCAH funded.
(50% with Paul Cooke) Benjamin Brown. Thesis Title: "Constructions of the 'night city', including the night-time economy, through studies of moving images of London from the 1980s to today". Funded Studentship Award for Excellence, University of Leeds.
Lauren Molyneux. Thesis title: "Twist Blindness', Puzzle Plots and Deviant Narration: Exploring Narrative Complexity in Adaptation". Master by Research. Funded/Leeds Masters Scholarship
Completed PhDs and MAR
2017 (50% with Paul Cooke) Laurence Carr. A sensory reading of silent cinema: F.W. Murnau and silent sound.
2015-2017 Associate supervisor (20%) with Professor Joanne Thompkins (University of Queensland). Prateek. Thesis Title: "Brecht in India: the poetics and politics of transcultural theatre."
Teaching:
In 2019-20, I convene Critical Approaches to Screen Studies and Cinema in the Digital Era. I also contribute to Introduction to Audio-Visual Culture.
Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures
Current postgraduate researchers