Ian Aitken was a chair professor, and is now an Emeritus Professor, affiliated to Hong Kong Baptist University. His areas of expertise lie in British documentary film studies, the British official film in South-East Asia, and theories of cinematic realism. His most recent book publications include World, Time Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Cinematic Realism (2020), The Major Realist Film Theorists (ed.), The British Official Film in South-East Asia (2016), and The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia (2016).

For decades Ian Aitken has been thinking deeply about cinematic realism, working tirelessly to interrogate the fundamental premises and limitations of previous theories of representation and reality. This latest book presents the apogee of his thinking, revealing via a series of intense readings of Lukács and Kracauer the implicit philosophical assumptions, methods, and problems behind their theoretical systems.

• Introduction: Representation, perception, and cinematic realismChapter 1: Bergson, the image, and timeChapter 2: Introduction to Lukács; essence, phenomena and temporalityChapter 3: ‘On the Phenomenology of the Creative Process’ (Lukács, 1914)Chapter 4: ‘Thoughts towards an Aesthetic of the Cinema’ (Lukács, 1913)Chapter 5: The Specificity of the Aesthetic (Lukács, 1963)Chapter 6: Husserl, epochē, and LebensweltChapter 7: Introduction to Kracauer; abstraction, redemption and modernityChapter 8: ‘Photography’ (Kracauer, 1927)Chapter 9: ‘Introduction: Photography’ and ‘Basic Concepts’, from Theory of Film (Kracauer, 1960)Chapter 10: ‘The Historical Approach’, and ‘The Historian’s Journey’, from History: The Last Things Before the Last (Kracauer, 1968)BibliographyIndex

Ian Aitken was a chair professor, and is now an Emeritus Professor, affiliated to Hong Kong Baptist University. His areas of expertise lie in British documentary film studies, the British official film in South-East Asia, and theories of cinematic realism. His most recent book publications include World, Time Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Cinematic Realism (2020), The Major Realist Film Theorists (ed.), The British Official Film in South-East Asia (2016), and The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia (2016).

For decades Ian Aitken has been thinking deeply about cinematic realism, working tirelessly to interrogate the fundamental premises and limitations of previous theories of representation and reality. This latest book presents the apogee of his thinking, revealing via a series of intense readings of Lukács and Kracauer the implicit philosophical assumptions, methods, and problems behind their theoretical systems.

• Introduction: Representation, perception, and cinematic realismChapter 1: Bergson, the image, and timeChapter 2: Introduction to Lukács; essence, phenomena and temporalityChapter 3: ‘On the Phenomenology of the Creative Process’ (Lukács, 1914)Chapter 4: ‘Thoughts towards an Aesthetic of the Cinema’ (Lukács, 1913)Chapter 5: The Specificity of the Aesthetic (Lukács, 1963)Chapter 6: Husserl, epochē, and LebensweltChapter 7: Introduction to Kracauer; abstraction, redemption and modernityChapter 8: ‘Photography’ (Kracauer, 1927)Chapter 9: ‘Introduction: Photography’ and ‘Basic Concepts’, from Theory of Film (Kracauer, 1960)Chapter 10: ‘The Historical Approach’, and ‘The Historian’s Journey’, from History: The Last Things Before the Last (Kracauer, 1968)BibliographyIndex

Ian Aitken was a chair professor, and is now an Emeritus Professor, affiliated to Hong Kong Baptist University. His areas of expertise lie in British documentary film studies, the British official film in South-East Asia, and theories of cinematic realism. His most recent book publications include World, Time Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Cinematic Realism (2020), The Major Realist Film Theorists (ed.), The British Official Film in South-East Asia (2016), and The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia (2016).

For decades Ian Aitken has been thinking deeply about cinematic realism, working tirelessly to interrogate the fundamental premises and limitations of previous theories of representation and reality. This latest book presents the apogee of his thinking, revealing via a series of intense readings of Lukács and Kracauer the implicit philosophical assumptions, methods, and problems behind their theoretical systems.

• Introduction: Representation, perception, and cinematic realismChapter 1: Bergson, the image, and timeChapter 2: Introduction to Lukács; essence, phenomena and temporalityChapter 3: ‘On the Phenomenology of the Creative Process’ (Lukács, 1914)Chapter 4: ‘Thoughts towards an Aesthetic of the Cinema’ (Lukács, 1913)Chapter 5: The Specificity of the Aesthetic (Lukács, 1963)Chapter 6: Husserl, epochē, and LebensweltChapter 7: Introduction to Kracauer; abstraction, redemption and modernityChapter 8: ‘Photography’ (Kracauer, 1927)Chapter 9: ‘Introduction: Photography’ and ‘Basic Concepts’, from Theory of Film (Kracauer, 1960)Chapter 10: ‘The Historical Approach’, and ‘The Historian’s Journey’, from History: The Last Things Before the Last (Kracauer, 1968)BibliographyIndex