The Philosophy of Werner Herzog (The Philosophy of Popular Culture)

Legendary director, actor, author, and provocateur Werner Herzog has incalculably influenced contemporary cinema for decades. Until now there has been no sustained effort to gather and present a variety of diverse philosophical approaches to his films and to the thinking behind their creation. The Philosophy of Werner Herzog, edited by M. Blake Wilson and Christopher Turner, collects fourteen essays by professional philosophers and film theorists from around the globe, who explore the famed German auteur’s notions of “ecstatic truth” as opposed to “accountants’ truth,” his conception of nature and its penchant for “overwhelming and collective murder,” his controversial film production techniques, his debts to his philosophical and aesthetic forebears, and finally, his pointed objections to his would-be critics––including, among others, the contributors to this book themselves. By probing how Herzog’s thinking behind the camera is revealed in the action he captures in front of it, The Philosophy of Werner Herzog shines new light upon the images and dialog we see and hear on the screen by enriching our appreciation of a prolific––yet enigmatic––film artist. Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: “I Am What My Films Are” Chapter Two: Herzog’s Sublime and Ecstatic Truth Chapter Three: The Conquest of Uselessness as a Practice of Film and Thought Chapter Four: Filmmaking and Philosophizing against the Grain of Theory: Herzog and Wittgenstein Chapter Five: Nature and Natural Meaning in Grizzly Man Chapter Six: Reflections from the Abyss: Herzog’s Philosophy of Death Chapter Seven: Fake News and Ecstatic Truths Chapter Eight: The Great Ecstasy of Werner Herzog: Truth, Heidegger, Apocalypse Chapter Nine: The Film Artist as Discoverer of the Marvels of Everyday Life: a Kracauerian Reading of Werner Herzog Chapter Ten: Werner Herzog and the Documentary as a Revelatory Practice Chapter Eleven: On Experience and Illumination: Werner Herzog’s Dialectical Relationship with Society Chapter Twelve: Herzog’s Philosophy of Masculinism Chapter Thirteen: Herzog’s Post-Tragic Aesthetic Chapter Fourteen: Werner Herzog on Circles, Chickens and Impotency Index Contributors "Legendary director, actor, author, and provocateur Werner Herzog has incalculably influenced contemporary cinema for decades. This essay collection by professional philosophers and film theorists from around the globe offers a diversity of perspectives on how the thinking behind the camera is revealed in the action Herzog captures in front of it"-- Provided by publisher