Film Worlds : A Philosophical Aesthetics of Cinema

Film Worlds unpacks the significance of the "worlds" that narrative films create, offering an innovative perspective on cinema as art. Drawing on aesthetics and the philosophy of art in both the continental and analytic traditions, as well as classical and contemporary film theory, it weaves together multiple strands of thought and analysis to provide new understandings of filmic representation, fictionality, expression, self-reflexivity, style, and the full range of cinema's affective and symbolic dimensions. Always more than "fictional worlds" and "storyworlds" on account of cinema's perceptual, cognitive, and affective nature, film worlds are theorized as immersive and transformative artistic realities. As such, they are capable of fostering novel ways of seeing, feeling, and understanding experience. Engaging with the writings of Jean Mitry, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Christian Metz, David Bordwell, Gilles Deleuze, and Hans-Georg Gadamer, among other thinkers, Film Worlds extends Nelson Goodman's analytic account of symbolic and artistic "worldmaking" to cinema, expands on French philosopher Mikel Dufrenne's phenomenology of aesthetic experience in relation to films and their worlds, and addresses the hermeneutic dimensions of cinematic art. It emphasizes what both celluloid and digital filmmaking and viewing share with the creation and experience of all art, while at the same time recognizing what is unique to the moving image in aesthetic terms. The resulting framework reconciles central aspects of realist and formalist/neo-formalist positions in film theory while also moving beyond them and seeks to open new avenues of exploration in film studies and the philosophy of film. Introduction -- Films and worlds. Worlds within worlds: fictions, narrative, and aesthetic enclosure -- Worlds of symbols. The framework of worlds: symbolization, meaning, and art -- Filmmaking as symbolic transformation -- Ways of cinematic world-making -- Representation, exemplification and reflexivity: an alternative approach to the symbolic dimension of cinematic art -- Worlds of feeling. Forms of feeling: mapping affect and emotions in films -- Cineaesthetic world-feeling and immersion -- Worlds of truth. Toward an existential hermeneutics of film worlds.;"Film Worlds unpacks the significance of the "worlds" that narrative films create, offering an innovative perspective on cinema as art. Drawing on aesthetics and the philosophy of art in both the continental and analytic traditions, as well as modern and contemporary film theory, it weaves together multiple strands of thought and analysis to provide new understandings of filmic representation, fictionality, expression, self-reflexivity, style, and the full range of cinema's affective and symbolic dimensions"--Page [4] of cover. Table of Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 15 Part I. Films and Worlds 30 1. Worlds Within Worlds: Fictions, Narrative, and Aesthetic Enclosure 32 Part II. Worlds of Symbols 66 2. The Framework of Worlds: Symbolization, Meaning, and Art 68 3. Filmmaking as Symbolic Transformation 89 4. Ways of Cinematic World-Making 115 5. Representation, Exemplification, and Reflexivity: An Alternative Approach to the Symbolic Dimension of Cinematic Art 143 Part III. Worlds of Feeling 188 6. Forms of Feeling: Mapping Affect and Emotions in Films 190 7. Cineaesthetic World-Feeling and Immersion 219 Part IV. Worlds of Truth 256 8. Toward an Existential Hermeneutics of Film Worlds 258 Notes 298 Bibliography 316 Index 328 Crafting a philosophy of cinematic art from the keenest insights of the continental and analytic traditions.