Philosophy
of Film: Advanced Topics Seminar in Philosophy
Phil
75.1, T 3:30 – 6, Brooklyn College
Professor Seeley,
pseeley@msn.com
Office Hours, Tuesday, 2:30 – 3:15
Course Description:
In
this course we will examine several philosophical problems surrounding film as
both a form of fine art and a medium of popular entertainment. What makes film
a unique artform? How are movies different from television and documentaries?
How do films convey an illusion of reality in the theater? What is the basis
for our emotional interactions with characters? How do the answers to these
questions bear on question of film authorship and the nature of cinematic
narration? The course will take a cognitivist approach. Cognitivist theories
attempt to explain spectator engagement with film as an extension of ordinary
perceptual and emotional experiences. But this is not the only approach to the
philosophy of film, and over the course of the semester we will also discuss
the differences between cognitivist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, and semiotic
theories of film.
Course Goals:
1) Introduce students to the
problems and methods of the philosophy of film.
2) Evaluate Cognitivistism as an alternative to traditional positions in film
theory.
3) Introduce students to a
growing field of interdisciplinary work in aesthetics and cognitive science.
Requirements:
A 6 page mid-term paper on an
assigned topic designed to synthesize the course material covered prior to the
midterm.
You will also be asked to
screen films on your own as part of your regular homework assignments. these
films will be placed on reserve in the ATS Library in the basement of Stager
Hall.
We will also meet once a
month outside of class in the Philosophy Seminar Room to screen and discuss
clips from the films listed on the syllabus. I will ask you to write 3 short
(3- 4 page) papers on the films we screen together outside of class. The
purpose of these assignments is to evaluate the success of cognitivist theories
of film.
An 8-12 page final paper.
Your final papers should use some film(s) we have screened in class to illustrate and evaluate the
cognitivist approach to one of the philosophical issues covered on the
syllabus.
Texts:
Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, eds. David Bordwell & No‘l Carroll (Madison, WI:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1996). (P)
Film Theory and Philosophy, eds. Richard Allen & Murray Smith (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2003). (AS)
Film Theory and Criticism, eds. Leo Braudy & Marshall Cohen (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1999). (BC)
SCHEDULE OF READINGS:
Topic
1: What
is a cognitivist theory of film?
Virginia Brooks, "Film, Perception, and Cognitive
Psychology," Millennium Film Journal 14/15, 1984, 105-126. (eDisk)
Gregory Currie, "The Film Theory That Never Was:
A Nervous Manifesto,Ó in Allen & Smith, Film Theory and Philosophy, 42-59. (AS)
No‘l Carroll, "Towards an Ontology of the Moving
Image," in Freeland and Wartenberg, Philosophy and Film, 68-85. (eDisk)
Virginia Brooks and Julian Hochberg, ÒThe Perception
of Motion PicturesÓ, in Edward Carterette and Morton Friedman (eds.), Handbook
of Perception, vol. 10 (New York:
Academic Press, 1978), 259-304. (eDisk)
Films:
ÒThe Purple Rose of CairoÓ; ÒSolarisÓ (Tarkovsky)
Topic
2: Film,
Perception, and Reality
Realism
Revised:
Andre Bazin, "The Ontology of the Photographic
Image," in Brady and Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism, 195-199. (BC)
Sigfried Kracauer, ÒBasic Concepts (from Theory of
Film), in Brady & Cohen, Film
Theory & Criticism, 171-182. (BC)
Kendall Walton, ÒTransparent PicturesÓ, Critical
Inquiry, 11,1984, 256-277. (eDisk)
Gregory Currie, "Photography, Painting, and
Perception," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 49(1), 23-29. (edisk)
Gregory Currie, "Film, Reality, and
Illusion," in Bordwell & Carroll, Post-Theory, 325-344. (P)
No‘l Carroll, "The Power of Movies," in
Carroll, Theorizing the Moving Image,
78-93. (eDisk)
Richard Allen, ÒLooking at Motion Pictures,Ó in Allen
and Smith, Film Theory & Philosophy, 76-94. (AS)
Kendall Walton, ÒOn Pictures and Photographs:
Objections Answered,Ó in Allen & Smith, Film Theory and Philosophy, 60-75. (AS)
David Bordwell, "Convention, Construction, and
Cinematic Vision," in Bordwell & Carroll, Post-Theory, 87-107.
(P)
Films: "The Rules of the Game";
ÒCitizen KaneÓ; "The Lady from Shanghai"; ÒAlphavilleÓ; ÒStalkerÓ
(Tarkovsky)
Fiction,
Non-fiction, and Film:
Gregory Currie, ÒVisible Traces: Documentary and the
Contents of Photographs,Ó Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57(3), 1999, 285-297. (eDisk)
Trevor Ponech, ÒWhat is Non-Fiction Cinema,Ó in Allen
and Smith, Film Theory and Philosophy,
203-220. (AS)
Carl Plantinga, "Moving Pictures and the Rhetoric
of Nonfiction Film," in Post-Theory, 307-324. (P)
No‘l Carroll, "Nonfiction Film and Postmodernist
Skepticism," in Post-Theory,
283-306. (P)
Trevor Ponech, ÒNon-Fictional Cinematic Artworks and
Knowledge,Ó in Wartenberg and Curran, The Philosophy of Film, 77-90. (eDisk)
Films: ÒThe Thin Blue Line; Roger and Me;
Sherman's March; Atomic Cafe
Topic
3: Film,
Fiction, and Emotion
Emotions
and Characters
Gregory Currie, "Imagination and Simulation:
Aesthetics Meets Cognitive Science," in Davies and Stone, Mental
Simulation (Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishers, 1995), 151-169. (eDisk)
Gregory Currie, ÒImagination, The General Theory,Ó in Image
and Mind, 141-163. (eDisk)
Gregory Currie, ÒImagination, Personal and Impersonal,Ó
in Image and Mind, 164-197. (eDisk)
Alex Neill, ÒEmpathy in (Film) Fiction,Ó in Post-Theory, 175-194. (P)
Murray Smith, "Imagining from the Inside,"
in Allen and Smith, Film Theory and Philosophy, 412-430. (AS)
No‘l Carroll, ÒSimulation, Emotions, and Morality, in Beyond
Aesthetics, pp. 306-317. (eDisk)
Matthew Kieran, ÒIn Search of a Narrative,Ó in Kieran
and Lopes, Imagination, Philosophy, & the Arts. (eDisk)
Films: Terms of Endearment; Thelma and Louise; Spellbound;
Homicide; Dead Calm (Polanski)
Realistic
Horror:
Kendall Walton, ÒFearing Fictions,Ó The Journal of
Philosophy, 75(1), 1978, 5-27. (eDisk)
No‘l Carroll, ÒMetaphysics and Horror, or Relating to
Fictions,Ó in The Philosophy of Horror, 59-96. (eDisk)
No‘l Carroll, ÒThe Paradox of Horror,Ó in The
Philosophy of Horror, 159-194. (eDisk)
Cynthia Freeland, ÒRealist Horror,Ó in Freeland &
Wartenberg, Philosophy and Film,
126-142. (eDisk)
Cynthia Freeland, "Feminist Frameworks for Horror
Films," in Post-Theory,
195-218. (P)
Films: Jurassic Park; The Fly; Repulsion; Scream; The Man Who
Knew Too Much; Alien; An American Werewolf in London
Topic
4: Language
of Film
Christian Metz, The Imaginary Signifier (excerpts), in Brady and Cohen, Film Theory and
Criticism, 68-89. (BC)
Gilbert Harman, ÒSemiotics and Cinema: Metz and
Wollen,Ó in Braudy and Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism, 90-98. (BC)
Stephen Prince, ÒThe Discourse of Pictures,Ó in Braudy
and Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism,
99-117. (BC)
Gregory Currie, "The Long Goodbye: The Imaginary
Language of Film," British Journal of Aesthetics, 33(3), July 1993: 207-19. (eDisk)
Topic
5: Film
Narrative
Film Narrative
David Bordwell, ÒPrinciples of Film Narration,Ó in
Freeland & Wartenberg, Philosophy and Film, 183-199. (edisk)
Seymour Chapman, ÒThe Cinematic Narrator,Ó in Freeland
& Wartenberg, Philosophy and Film,
190-197. (eDisk)
George Wilson, ÒOn Film Narrative and Narrative
MeaningÓ, in Allen and Smith, Film Theory and Philosophy, 221-238. (AS)
Todd McGowan, ÒLost on Mulholland Drive: Navigating
David LynchÕs Panegyric to Hollywood,Ó Cinema Journal 43.2 (2004): 67-89. (eDisk)
George Wilson,
ÒTransparency and Twist in Narrative Fiction Film,Ó Journal of Aesthetics
and Art Criticism, vol. 64:1, pp.
81-96. (eDisk)
Berys Gaut, ÒThe Philosophy of the Movies: Cinematic
Narration,Ó ed. Peter Kivy, Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2003), 230-253 (eDisk)
Gregory Currie, ÒUnreliability Reconfigured: Narrative
in Literature and FilmÓ Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 53(1), 1995, 19-29. (eDisk)
Films: Mulholland Drive; Rear Window
Topic
6: Film
Authorship
Andrew Sarris, ÒNotes on Auteur Theory,Ó in Braudy and
Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism. (BC)
Paisley Livingstone, ÒCinematic Authorship,Ó in Allen
and Smith, Film Theory and Philosophy.
(AS)
Berys Gaut, ÒFilm Authorship and Collaboration,Ó in
Allen and Smith, Film Theory and Philosophy. (AS)
-
Stephen Heath, ÒAgainst Authorship,Ó in Wartenberg and
Curran, The Philosophy of Film. (eDisk)
Syllabus Bibliography:
David
Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film (New York: Routledge, 1997).
No‘l
Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart (New York: Routledge, 1990).
No‘l
Carroll, A Philosophy of Mass Art,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
No‘l
Carroll, Theorizing The Moving Image,
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
No‘l
Carroll, Beyond Aesthetics (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Gregory Currie, Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy,
and Cognitive Science (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Cynthia
A. Freeland and Thomas E. Wartenberg, Philosophy and Film, (New York: Routledge, 1995).
Matthew
Kieran & Dominic McIver Lopes, Imagination, Philosophy, & the Arts (New York: Routledge, 2003).
Other
Texts of Interest:
Rudolf
Arnheim, Film as Art (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1957).
Rudolf
Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974).
David
Bordwell, Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of
Cinema (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1991).
David
Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (eds.), Film Art: An Introduction and Film
ViewerÕs Guide (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2003).
Warren
Buckland, ÒFilm SemioticsÓ, in Toby Miller and Robert Stam (eds.), A
Companion to Film Theory (Malden, MA:
Blackwell, 2004).
Noel
Carroll, Philosophical Problems of Classical Film Theory (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1988).
Noel
Carroll, Mystifying Movies: Fads and Fallacies in Contemporary Film Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).
Noel
Carroll, A Philosophy of Mass Art,
(New York: Oxford University Press,1998).
Noel
Carroll, Interpreting the Moving Image, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Noel
Carroll, Engaging the Moving Image
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003).
Seymour
Chatman, Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990).
Seymour
Chatman, ÒWhat Novels Can Do that Films CanÕt (and Vice Versa)Ó, in Braudy and
Cohen (eds.), Film Theory and Criticism.
Seymour
Chatman, ÒThe Cinematic NarratorÓ, in Braudy and Cohen (eds.), Film Theory
and Criticism.
Gregory
Currie, ÒPhotography, Painting, and PerceptionÓ, Journal of Aesthetics and
Art Criticism, 49 (1991).
Mark
Edmundson, Nightmare on Main Street: Angels, Sadomasochism, and the Culture
of the Gothic (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1999).
Sergei
Eisenstein, ÒBeyond the ShotÓ, in Braudy and Cohen (eds.), Film Theory and
Criticism.
Berys
Gaut, ÒThe Paradox of HorrorÓ, in Alex Neill and Aaron Ridley (eds.), Arguing
About Art (New York: Routledge,
2002).
Berys
Gaut, ÒFilm Authorship and CollaborationÓ, in Allen and Smith (eds.), Film
Theory and Philosophy.
Berys
Gaut, ÒMaking Sense of Films: Neoformalism and its LimitsÓ, Forum for Modern
Language Studies, 1995.
Berys
Gaut, ÒCinematic ArtÓ, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 60 (2002).
Berys
Gaut, ÒIdentification and Emotion in Narrative FictionÓ, in Carl Plantinga and
Greg Smith (eds.), Passionate Views: Film, Cognition, and Emotion.
Chris
Grau (ed.), Philosophy and the Matrix,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Torben
Grodal, Moving Pictures: A New Theory of Film, Genres, Feeling, and
Cognition, (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2002.
Alfred
Guzzetti, ÒChristian Metz and the Semiology of the CinemaÓ, in Braudy and Cohen
(eds.), Film Theory and Criticism.
John
Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (eds.), The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Richard
Joyce, ÒRational Fear of MonstersÓ, British Journal of Aesthetics, 40, 2000.
William
King, ÒScruton and Reasons for Looking at a PhotographÓ, in Alex Neill and
Aaron Ridley (eds.), Arguing About Art (New York: Routledge, 2002).
Andrew
Light, Reel Arguments: Film, Philosophy, and Social Criticism, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003).
James
Monaco, How to Read a Film, Oxford
University P., 2000.
John
Morreall, ÒEnjoying Negative Emotions in FictionsÓ, Philosophy and
Literature, 9, 1985, 95-102.
Alexander
Nehamas, ÒWriter, Text, Work, AuthorÓ, in Anthony Cascardi (ed.), Literature
and the Question of Philosophy
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
Carl
Plantinga and Greg Smith (eds.), Passionate Views: Film, Cognition, and
Emotion (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press,, 1999.
Roger
Scruton, ÒPhotography and RepresentationÓ, in The Aesthetic Understanding (New York: St. Augustine, 1998).
Irving
Singer, Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998).
Irving
Singer, Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004).
Murray
Smith, Engaging Characters: Fiction, Emotion, and the Cinema (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
Murray
Smith, ÒFilm Spectatorship and the Institution of FictionÓ, Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 53
(1995): 113-27.
Kendall
Walton, "Film, Photography, & Transparency," in Wartenberg and
Curran, The Philosophy of Film. (H)
Kendall
Walton, Mimesis as Make-Believe
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990).
Nigel
Warburton, ÒIndividual Style in Photographic ArtÓ, in Alex Neill and Aaron
Ridley (eds.), Arguing About Art,
(New York: Routledge, 2002).
Tom
Wartenberg, Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999).
George
Wilson, Narration in Light: Studies in Cinematic Point of View (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1986).
Peter
Wollen, ÒThe Auteur TheoryÓ, in Braudy and Cohen (eds.), Film Theory and
Criticism.