An in-depth study of all Tarantino’s feature films to date (from Reservoir Dogs to The Hateful Eight), Quentin Tarantino: A Poetics and Politics of Cinematic Metafiction argues that, far from wallowing in narcissism and solipsism, a charge directed not only at Tarantino but at metafiction in general, these self-conscious fictions do more than just reflexively foreground their status as artefacts; they offer metacommentaries that engage with the history of cultural representations and exalt the aesthetic, ethical and political potential of creation as re-recreation and resignification. By combi ... More

An in-depth study of all Tarantino’s feature films to date (from Reservoir Dogs to The Hateful Eight), Quentin Tarantino: A Poetics and Politics of Cinematic Metafiction argues that, far from wallowing in narcissism and solipsism, a charge directed not only at Tarantino but at metafiction in general, these self-conscious fictions do more than just reflexively foreground their status as artefacts; they offer metacommentaries that engage with the history of cultural representations and exalt the aesthetic, ethical and political potential of creation as re-recreation and resignification. By combining cultural studies and neo-formalist approaches, this book seeks to highlight how intimately the films’ poetics and politics are intertwined. Each chapter explores a specific salient feature, some of which have drawn much academic attention (history, race, gender, violence), others less so (narrative structure, style, music, theatricality). Ultimately, Quentin Tarantino: Poetics and Politics of Cinematic Metafiction places Tarantino’s films firmly in the legacy of Hawks, Godard, Leone and the New Hollywood, and revises the image of cool purveyor of pop culture the American director cultivated at the beginning of his career by foregrounding the breadth and layeredness of the films’ engagement with cultural history, high and low, screen and print, American, East Asian and European. The films produced by the Tarantino team are formal invitations for viewers to similarly engage with, and reflect on, the material, and delight in doing so.