Presentation
Yasunosuke Gonda, A Pioneer of Film Studies
(10th Annual Conference: Presentation)
1985 Volume 31 Pages 33-34
Details
1985 Volume 31 Pages 33-34
Works of Yasunosuke Gonda(1887-1951), a Japanese sociologist, can be classified into four groups: (a) a sort of encyclopedic enlightenment of film, (b) a massive investigation of statistical sociology into audiences of film and performing arts, (c) a vigorous defense of popular entertainment, (d) a social education for beautifying life.
Viewed from theory of film, his first book on film PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATION OF MOVING PICTURE (1914) must be reevaluated. The points of his argument are: (1) Film is reaching matuality as a completely new medium, (2) Film has many aesthetical characteristics as art, (3) Film will soon produce a new civilization because of its democratic character.
Thus, Gonda proposed to set up a science [ study ] of moving picture, which is somewhat close to the conception of filmologie in France after the World War II, and comparing with some other Western major works, by Vachel Lindsay or Hugo Münsterberg for example, Gonda’s works are of the same period, or even pioneering.
